CRIME BLOTTER: Reported offenses in the Tri-parishes
February 19, 2013
Amos William Curry
February 19, 2013
Jeremiah Wright is not yet mentally fit to assist in his criminal defense, and he will be returned to a state mental-health facility where doctors will again attempt to restore his competency to stand trial, a Thibodaux judge ruled Tuesday.
While establishing that Wright understands the nature of the charge against him and can help to an extent in his defense, District Judge John LeBlanc listed four elements of the Louisiana Supreme Court-derived criteria used to determine a suspect’s mental capacity to stand trial that he said Wright does not meet.
“In light of all of the evidence and testimony, the Court finds that Jeremiah Lee Wright does not have the ability to maintain a consistent defense, to listen to witnesses and inform his lawyers of distortions or misstatements, to make simple decisions in response to well explained alternatives, and to testify in his own defense, if necessary,” the ruling reads.
Wright, 31, confessed to police that he decapitated and dismembered his 7-year-old special-needs son on Aug. 14, 2011 at their Thibodaux home, according to police affidavits and unchallenged testimony. The suspect has not entered a plea.
Two months after the murder later LeBlanc ruled that Wright was mentally unfit to stand trial based on the findings of a court-appointed sanity commission. Wright was remitted to the East Louisiana Mental Health System’s forensics division in Jackson, La.
Criminal proceedings against Wright will again be stalled indefinitely. The suspect will be returned to the ELMHS, where he spent nine months before doctors discharged him, accused him of exaggerating symptoms and declared him fit to stand trial.
