JEFFERSON COUNTY — A mental fitness evaluation was ordered Tuesday in Jefferson County court for 36-year-old rural Mt. Vernon man charged with the first-degree murder of his brother.

Matthew Sloan is charged with three counts first-degree murder for allegedly shooting his 34-year-old brother once in the head on the Fourth of July. According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, at approximately 5:46 p.m. July 4, they received a 911 call from a woman indicating her husband, later identified as David Sloan, of Mount Vernon, had been shot by his brother at a home on East Webb Road in rural Mount Vernon.

Detectives and Crime Scene Investigators of the Illinois State Police were called in to conduct an investigation and Matthew Sloan was arrested for homicide.

On Tuesday, Sloan’s attorney filed a motion requesting a mental fitness evaluation be completed on the defendant. The court ordered the evaluation, which would have placed a preliminary hearing beyond the speedy trial clock had the delay not been attributed to the defendant. A status hearing in the case is scheduled for September 4.

Sloan remains in the Jefferson County Jail with bail set at $3 million.