FARMINGTON — On the verge of facing a jury trial 11 years after her two children were fatally strangled, Sun Cha Warhola is instead going back under mental competency evaluation.

The scheduled Sept. 7 trial is out the window, and apparently so is the potential plea bargain that Warhola just a few weeks ago was discussing with her attorney and the Davis County Attorney’s Office.

Warhola, now 55, was arrested shortly after the deaths of her children, James, 8, and Jean, 7, in Layton. She spent the next nine years at the Utah State Hospital as doctors tried to restore her competency to stand trial. Since she was deemed competent in 2019, she has been awaiting trial, with delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But in a hearing Tuesday, 2nd District Judge Michael Edwards approved a motion to have the Utah Department of Human Services appoint two alienists to evaluate her again.

Warhola’s attorney, Edward Brass, said in the motion that he met with Warhola twice and spoke by telephone several times in July after prosecutors proposed a plea bargain. Warhola faces two counts of first-degree felony aggravated murder.

He said Warhola appeared to understand the details of the offer, asked questions and “seemed to be otherwise healthy and in good spirits.”

But after another meeting with her at the Davis County Jail on Aug. 25 and a phone conversation with her the next day, Brass said he concluded Warhola “has deteriorated physically and mentally.”

He said she could not recall details of the plea bargain offer and she insisted that her psychiatrist at the State Hospital, not Davis prosecutors, had made the offer. Brass said Warhola sleeps until 1 p.m. on the days he meets with her, and he said she “is influenced in her decision making by her cellmates.”

She vacillates between meeting with him alone and speaking English or requiring a Korean interpreter, Brass said. And she said she wanted to reject any plea offer because “her reasoning is that she is innocent of the charges.”

Brass said Warhola told him he “is not doing enough to prove her innocence, and that the deaths of her children were caused by the government.”

Brass said his 44 years of legal experience led him to conclude Warhola could not enter a “competent, knowing and voluntary plea” and could not face trial because she can’t remember their discussions or be able to rationally assess the charges against her.

The attorney noted he has represented Warhola since her arrest and he “can represent to the court in good faith that she is not malingering. Her fervent belief in her changing positions makes it impossible for her to assist in any way in her defense.”

Details of the potential plea bargain were not available. Efforts to reach Brass and Brandon Poll, the deputy county attorney prosecuting the case, were not immediately successful.

Charging documents said Warhola’s husband at the time, Kenneth Warhola, arrived home to find his wife barricaded in her son’s bedroom.

She allegedly had blocked the door with a bed and told her husband to “give her 10 minutes” before entering.

He pushed the door open and found the children unresponsive, his son’s face cold to the touch.

He called police, who said they found the children dead with what appeared to be defensive marks on their arms and legs.

The arrest affidavit said the children also had strangulation marks on their necks and Warhola’s arms and legs had injuries consistent with a struggle.

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