La Jolla

A woman accused of shooting a worshiper in the back at a church was committed to a state mental hospital Friday after a judge declared she was mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Patricia Perrellis, 41, a transient, is charged with shooting Michelle Gallagher, 40, a La Jolla real estate agent, at the Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in La Jolla on March 2.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Charles Hayes ruled that Perrellis is mentally incompetent to stand trial. He relied on the opinion of court-appointed psychiatrists.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Collins said Perrellis must prove she has regained her competency before she can be released from Patton State Hospital and put on trial.

“It’s pretty clear by the reports that she’s not competent,” said Collins.

Perrellis talked in gibberish and could not understand what her attorney was trying to tell her, said Collins.

Gallagher told police she was in the church foyer when a woman approached her and asked where the confessional was. Gallagher said she was walking out of the church when the woman fired a single shot at her from a small-caliber derringer.

Perrellis faces a second attempted-murder charge stemming from another incident the same day, several blocks away, in which Colette Cholaki, 24, of La Mesa, said Perrellis pointed a gun at her in a parking lot. The gun misfired.

A Municipal Court judge ordered that Perrellis be examined by psychiatrists March 9, after she staged several outbursts in court.