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A hearing to determine whether a Frankfort teenager charged with murder can be tried as an adult likely won’t take place until early 2027.

Deven Young, 18, has been accused of killing Sunshine Stewart, 48, who was found dead in July 2025 near a campsite in Union where she had been paddleboarding. Young is being held at Long Creek Youth Development Center and is currently being charged as a juvenile. He was 17 when the alleged killing occurred.

Prosecutors for the Office of the Maine Attorney General want to try Young as an adult, but a bind-over hearing needs to be held first, in which a judge will hear evidence for and against the state’s request. Young’s attorneys said during a brief scheduling conference on Tuesday that their mental health expert needs at least three months to evaluate their client, after an expert for the state completed a diagnostic report on Aug. 1.

District Court Judge Eric Walker did not schedule a date for the hearing, but suggested they reconvene in November to discuss whether the hearing can be held this year.

Public records from the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, unrelated to Stewart’s death, detailed earlier incidents in which Young had been getting into fights with others. Those records also showed Young had spent three years on a waitlist for behavioral health services.

He was found competent to stand trial in April.

Defense attorney Jeremy Pratt said in court Tuesday that it’s taken their expert more than a month to meet with Young at Long Creek, “none of which I would say is attributable to us or our expert.”

He requested the bind-over hearing be scheduled sometime after Jan. 18.

Prosecutor Lisa Bogue said she won’t be available that month due to a double homicide trial in Oxford County. She said the state would like the hearing to be scheduled earlier, but that she believes “the defense needs an opportunity” to retain its own expert.

Tuesday’s conference was held over Zoom with more than 50 people in attendance, including the lawyers, media outlets and dozens of individuals who used “#JusticeforSunny” screensavers.