A judge on Monday found a Gardiner man incompetent to stand trial on a charge of murdering his father after a state psychologist said the man suffers from a mental illness and has consistently demonstrated “acute delusional thinking.”

The written order followed a competency hearing that ended abruptly Monday after Leroy Smith III, 25, stood in the courtroom and told the judge that his attorneys failed to properly represent him and that a gun was held to his head in 2011 in an incident somehow involving the heavy metal band Slayer.

“I have something I want to say,” said Smith, continuing to speak even after Superior Court Justice Donald Marden warned against it and told him that if he did not stop, he would have him removed from the courtroom. Marden said he would accept anything in writing from Smith through his attorneys.

“With my case, they’re telling me that my story is delusional. … They’re not investigating it, that it happened,” Smith said.

He said that at some point in 2011, “I had a gun held against my head and was sworn to keep secret about what I am. They refused investigating any persons responsible. The whole entire group Slayer was there.”

After Smith continued speaking, the judge told the long-haired, bearded man to sit down or be removed. Smith responded, “Then I have no fair trial.”

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Smith had tried to fire his lawyers at a hearing in July, when he also was found incompetent to stand trial.

Police say Smith stabbed his father, Leroy Smith Jr., 56, to death on May 3, 2014, in the apartment they shared, dismembered the body and distributed the body parts in a rural area of Richmond. At a hearing five days later, the younger Smith claimed to be a political prisoner.

Ann LeBlanc, who is director of the State Forensic Service and evaluated Smith for the court, testified Monday that he has consistently demonstrated “acute delusional thinking” since May and was unable to cooperate with his defense attorneys even in a rudimentary way.

“He had delusions that he thought he was God, grandiose delusions he was the best guitarist in the world,” LeBlanc said, adding that he also had delusions that people associated with heavy metal or thrash metal bands were out to kill him.

Marden noted that Smith was indicted May 16, but had yet to be arraigned in connection with the murder charge.

LeBlanc testified that Smith does not have skills associated with legal competence in the state of Maine and that restoration to competence is dependent on his willingness to take antipsychotic medication, which he had previously been unwilling to do.

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“He does not think anything is wrong,” LeBlanc said. She said he has a very serious psychosis related to a schizophrenic disorder.

The judge’s finding of incompetence says Smith is to be committed to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services for care and treatment. Smith is expected to be held at the Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, where he has been held at various times since his arrest in May. Periodic reports on Smith’s condition are to be sent to the court.

Smith was arrested in Westbrook two days after the slaying of Leroy Smith Jr. After the younger Smith was taken to the Cumberland County Jail, Smith allegedly told officers that 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 has also referred to himself as God in discussions with police, and said he was affiliated with Hells Angels, according to the affidavit.

Police found the father’s mutilated remains in trash bags that Smith told them he dumped in Richmond. Investigators also searched the woods for explosives that the younger Smith claimed to have planted in the area, but no devices were found.


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