Trying an incompetent defendant deprives him of his due process rights to a fair trial under both the Federal and Vermont Constitutions. Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 385 (1966); State v. Beaudoin, 2008 VT 133, ¶ 8, 185 Vt. 164, 970 A.2d 39; see also 13 V.S.A. § 4817(a) (“A person shall not be tried for a criminal offense if he or she is incompetent to stand trial.”). The procedure described in 13 V.S.A. § 4817 gives the trial court some latitude in determining whether or not to hold a competency hearing. See Merchant, 173 Vt. at 254, 790 A.2d at 391 (“The trial court has a duty to . . . conduct a competency hearing [under §4817] only where the court has reason to believe that such person may be incompetent.”); State v. O’Connell, 149 Vt. 114, 116-17, 540 A.2d 1030, 1031-32 (1987) (<HOLDING>). That said, the “keystone is the court’s
holding that competency hearing not required when judge alone raises issue of competency holding that competency standard for stand ing trial is same as standard for determining competency to waive right to counsel holding that the state does not have to prove a defendants competency to stand trial holding that no hearing was required where there were written reports supporting defendants competency recognizing that a defense attorneys opinion on the clients competency or incompetency is an important but not dispositive factor for trial court to consider in its competency determination