AUGUSTA — Leroy Smith III pleaded not criminally responsible Thursday to charges of murder and manslaughter in connection with the 2014 stabbing death and dismemberment of his father, setting the stage for a trial next week that will explore the man’s sanity and motives.
Smith, 27, entered that plea in addition to an earlier not guilty plea just before jury selection in his case. No spectators were in the courtroom Thursday morning when Smith personally entered the plea of not criminally responsible.
Both his attorneys and the prosecutor said the case will continue Monday when the one-day trial is set to take place. A jury of nine men and seven women selected Thursday will decide then whether he’s guilty or innocent of the May 2014 killing of Leroy Smith Jr., 56, in the Gardiner apartment the men shared.
If the younger Smith is convicted, a judge then will consider the issue of criminal responsibility by reason of insanity.
Smith was under court order to be involuntarily medicated at the Riverview Psychiatric Center in an attempt to restore his competency after he was found incompetent to stand trial in January 2016. However, Smith chose to take the medication voluntarily. Later, experts testified that Smith’s mental condition had improved to the point that he could stand trial.
Selecting a jury of 12 members with four alternates — who are not identified as such — took a little over an hour Thursday at the Capital Judicial Center from a pool of about 110 people. More than half of the pool said they had seen or heard something about the case in the news media.
Smith, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, light-colored pants and a striped tie, sat at the defense table between his two attorneys, Pamela Ames and Scott Hess, and faced the pool of jurors. Smith’s head was shaved, as it had been in other recent court hearings, and he had a dark beard.
While he waited for attorneys to finish conferring with the judge in chambers, Smith paged through the list of jurors’ names.
And Justice Michaela Murphy explained to jurors that while a one-day trial on the charges is unusual — most typically stretch over several days or weeks — that’s because the defense and prosecuting attorneys have reached agreements about much of the evidence in the case.
She told jurors that Smith is charged with intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing the death of his father in Gardiner. When she said there were allegations that after Smith stabbed his father, he “disposed of the remains in Richmond,” one member of the jury pool said, “Ooh.”
Jurors were told to report to the courthouse at 9 a.m. Monday; in the meantime, Murphy ordered them not to talk to anyone, even each other, about the case and not to look at any information on it.
Before jury selection Monday, the prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber, said that at Monday’s trial, he would be tasked with proving Smith’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Also before jury selection, Ames said the jury will be asked to decide whether it was intentional or knowing murder or manslaughter or “a reasonable self-defense.”
She said that if Smith is convicted by a jury, then the judge would decide whether Smith was criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the offense.
Both sides referred to this as a “bifurcated trial.”
Macomber had said previously that the state would not contest a finding of “not criminally responsible” for the murder. But Macomber also added that if Smith is found guilty at trial, “the state will not be recommending a sentence as short as 30 years.” The penalty for murder in Maine is a minimum of 25 years in prison and the possibility of life in prison without parole.
A finding of not criminally responsible would place Smith in the custody of the commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services and result in his being placed at Riverview for treatment.
At the January 2016 hearing when he was found incompetent to stand trial, Smith told a judge that his lawyers had failed to represent him properly and that a gun was held to his head in 2011 in an incident somehow involving the heavy metal band Slayer.
“I had a gun held against my head and was sworn to keep secret about what I am,” he said, adding, “The whole entire group Slayer was there.”
Police say Smith stabbed his father to death on May 3, 2014, in their apartment, dismembered the body and distributed body parts in a rural area of Richmond. At one point he claimed to be a political prisoner.
Forensic psychologists have said that Smith was suffering from delusions.
Smith was arrested in Westbrook two days after the slaying. He told officers at the Cumberland County jail he had killed his father and “filleted him and buried him in the woods because his dad sexually assaulted him his whole life,” according to an affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Jonah O’Roak. Smith also has referred to himself as God and said he was affiliated with Hells Angels, the affidavit says.
Later, Smith claimed his father was poisoning him.
Smith has been held at the Kennebec County jail and at the Riverview Psychiatric Center since his arrest.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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