Alleged child killer unfit for trial

District Judge John LeBlanc ruled that a Thibodaux man accused of decapitating and murdering his 7-year-old son is mentally unfit to stand trial.

LeBlanc issued his ruling Tuesday afternoon after he disclosed that the two court-appointed psychologists who evaluated Jeremiah LeeWright wrote he was “not competent” and “lacks the capacity to understand the proceedings.”

Wright will be sent to Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System in Jackson, La. He will be held in the forensic division of the hospital, where professionals will attempt to restore his mental state in order to prepare him for trial.

LeBlanc ordered the hospital to file monthly reports on Wright’s treatment. State law requires reports every six months, but the forensic division can supply them sooner, Wright’s defense attorney said after Tuesday’s hearing.

A status hearing will be held at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 31 in LeBlanc’s courtroom.

Wright, 30, of 414 W. Seventh St., Thibodaux, is charged with first-degree murder. He was held in isolation at the Lafourche Parish Detention Center in lieu of $5 million bond.

Wright is accused of beheading and dismembering his son at their Thibodaux home on Aug. 14. After he was apprehended at the home, Wright allegedly confessed to investigators that he killed Jori because he was “tired of taking care of him,” and he left the child’s head near the roadside so Jesslyn Lirette, Wright’s live-in girlfriend and Jori’s mother, “could feel stupid” when she returned home.

Jori used a wheelchair and had cerebral palsy. He was born three months premature and was unable to speak, family members have said.

Doctors examined Wright on Sept. 28 and Oct. 10, and LeBlanc said there was “a preponderance of evidence that the defendant is incapable of assisting counsel and unable to understand the nature of the proceedings.”

Defense attorney Kerry Cuccia, director of the Capital Defense Project of Southeastern Louisiana, said afterward the hospital would “diligently work to restore Mr. Wright.”

Neither the state nor the defense submitted other evidence before the court.

No objections were filed, and the commissioners were not cross-examined. Their opinions will be sealed by court order.

Jesslyn sighed heavily as LeBlanc read his ruling. A chorus of sniffling permeated the silent courtroom after Wright was escorted out. But before he left, Wright made eye contact with Jesslyn and the right side of his face twitched into a half-smile.

Dressed in red prison garb, with his hands and feet shackled, Wright sat in the jury box during the hearing. He mumbled when LeBlanc briefly quoted the insanity commission’s findings. His comments were incoherent from where the public was seated, and Cuccia would not reveal what Wright said once court let out.

District Attorney Cam Morvant II will lead the prosecution. He was not immediately available for comment.

Family members filled the first row and half of the second row in LeBlanc’s courtroom, which had only a few open seats. The family declined to comment after the hearing.

Jori was a second grader at South Thibodaux Elementary. Family members said in August that he loved to watch cartoons, particularly the “Toy Story” movie series and “Spongebob SquarePants.” He also liked the thumping bass of Linkin Park songs, enjoyed drawing and is remembered as child who loved to laugh.

“He would laugh, laugh and laugh and, sometimes, we just wondered what he was laughing at,” Jori’s grandfather Dale Lirette Sr. said in August. “Then we would crack up because he was cracking up.”

Jeremiah Wright is escorted into the Thibodaux Courthouse in
this file photo taken earlier this year.

CASEY GISCLAIR