BLACKSBURG -- The man accused of killing a fellow Virginia Tech student in a campus cafe last month is being treated at a state mental facility, where a forensic psychologist will evaluate his sanity at the time of the offense and his competency to stand trial.

Haiyang Zhu, a 25-year-old Tech doctoral candidate, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Xin Yang. Police have said Zhu stabbed and decapitated Yang as the pair had coffee together at Au Bon Pain in the Graduate Life Center the evening of Jan. 21.

Zhu did not appear at a motions hearing Wednesday morning in the Blacksburg division of Montgomery County General District Court because he is being treated at Central State Hospital in Petersburg.

At the hearing, his attorney, Stephanie Cox, and Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch argued about the appointment of a forensic psychologist to evaluate Zhu.

"Time is of the essence," Cox told General District Court Judge Gino Williams, because Zhu's father, who does not speak English, is in town from China for only a few days.

Cox requested that Williams appoint a particular psychologist at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry & Public Policy at the University of Virginia because a member of the staff speaks Mandarin, Zhu's native language.

"I'm very concerned that he's not going to be able to express the intricate nuances that are going to be involved here if he can't do it in his own native language," she told the judge.

But Finch argued that because Zhu has a court-appointed attorney and public money pays for his defense, he cannot choose the person who evaluates him.

He said Zhu speaks English well and does not need to be evaluated in Mandarin.

Also, Finch said, the evaluation should take place in a secure facility such as a jail or Central State.

"Central State Hospital has a team of experienced professionals in this field" and they have probably established a rapport with Zhu because he is being treated there, he told the judge.

He said Zhu "does present a very serious danger to the public" and should not be transported to a facility that he described as being similar to a doctor's office.

"We have very serious and bona fide concerns about security," Finch said.

"There's always security concerns whenever you transport a prisoner anywhere," Cox said. She added that Zhu has not presented any security concerns since he was incarcerated at the Montgomery County Jail.

"I think the crime itself presents its own security concerns," Finch said.

Williams agreed.

"I'm not going to let him be transferred to the institute to do it," he said. "I'm not going to transfer him under any circumstances."

Williams called a recess for nearly an hour while the attorneys tried to find out if a Central State psychologist could perform an evaluation in Mandarin.

Staff at the hospital can translate the language, Finch said when the hearing reconvened.

But Williams said he still was not comfortable making a ruling and wanted to think about the issue longer.

He adjourned the hearing and, later in the day, entered an order appointing the UVa psychologist Cox had requested, but saying the evaluation must take place either at Central State or the Montgomery County Jail.

In his order, Williams wrote that a qualified psychologist "who is fluent in the native language of the defendant is preferable to an evaluator required to use an interpreter to conduct such evaluations."

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 5 in the case against Zhu but was postponed to April 23, partly because a report on his evaluation is unlikely to be completed by the March date.