Law enforcement was on hand as 37-year-old Donald Surber of Winchester was transported to Berkeley County Magistrate Court Thursday.

Surber faces charges of first degree murder and kidnapping after a 26-hour standoff last week with police that left his ex-girlfriend 35-year-old Katherine Nicole Sharp dead.

Surber didn't appear in court, instead his court-appointed attorneys from the public defender's office asked for an evaluation to see if Surber is competent to participate in a preliminary hearing.

"They don't think he's competent to go through a preliminary hearing," Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely said Thursday. "That's not abnormal based on what we've seen in this case so far."

Games-Neely says it's likely Surber will be evaluated at the Eastern Regional Jail by a doctor chosen by defense counsel.

Thursday's hearing involved the kidnapping and murder charges. Surber is also expected to be arraigned on escape charges as well following an attempted escape last week at City Hospital in Martinsburg. He was shot during that attempt and spent a few days at a Winchester, Virginia hospital. 

Prosecutor Games-Neely says there was a strong police presence Thursday and that will continue to take place whenever Surber is scheduled to make a court appearance. "We have to have high security around to make sure that he gets to and from places safely and that he in fact makes his appearance and doesn't try to escape again or no one tries to harm him," she said. "We have to make sure both things happen."