After a recent appellate court ruling, Guy Neighbors, an owner of the former Yellow House Store in Lawrence, is returning to custody in Kansas as he faces federal charges in three cases, federal prosecutors said.

Neighbors, 53, had been in custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Butner, N.C., after U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia in December 2009 ruled that Neighbors was not mentally competent to assist in his defense.

A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sent the case back to the district court over an issue related to an August 2010 order from Murguia that dealt with the administration of “antipsychotic drugs in an effort to restore him to competency to stand trial,” according to court records.

Appellate attorneys for Neighbors had argued Murguia’s order “invoked the coercive power of the court” that if Neighbors “did not ‘voluntarily’ take the recommended drugs, he would be held in contempt.” They argued this constituted an order to involuntarily medicate Neighbors, which can only be determined after a more stringent four-part test laid out by U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Federal prosecutors did not oppose the motion from Neighbors’ attorneys, which the appellate court granted. Murguia has scheduled a Monday hearing for Neighbors in Kansas City, Kan.

In the main case against Neighbors, prosecutors accuse him — through charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering — of selling stolen goods from the former secondhand store, 1904 Mass. His wife, Carrie Neighbors, 49, in January began serving an eight-year prison sentence after a jury in 2010 convicted her of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering, 12 counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. She is appealing that verdict.

Guy Neighbors faces two other pending cases in which prosecutors accuse him of growing marijuana and obstructing a theft investigation. The Lawrence couple for several years have maintained their innocence.