AUGUSTA, Maine — More than two years after allegedly killing and dismembering his father in their South Gardiner apartment, Leroy Smith III has yet to stand trial as Maine’s justice system continues to try to determine if he is fit to do so.
Six months ago, in a precedent-setting case, a judge ordered Smith to begin taking antipsychotic medications, which would be forcibly administered if he did not take them willingly. But Smith still remains delusional, his attorney said Monday.
On Thursday, Smith will appear before Kennebec County Superior Court Justice Donald Marden as Marden considers whether the medication has made — or is likely to make — Smith competent to stand trial for murder.
Depending on his decision, Smith could return to Riverview Psychiatric Center, where he has been held since shortly after his arrest, for further treatment and observation, head to Kennebec County Jail to await trial for murder, or — although a remote possibility — be released, should Marden determine Smith is not competent, not likely to become competent and not a danger to himself or others.
Smith was arrested on May 6, 2014, and charged with intentional or knowing murder or depraved indifference murder after police said he killed and dismembered his father, 56-year-old Leroy Smith II, and then placed the remains in a wooded area along a dirt road in Richmond. He has been in state custody since that day.
Shortly after his arrest, he allegedly told police that he killed and “filleted” his father because the older man had sexually abused him throughout his life, according to court documents.
In January 2015, Smith appeared in Kennebec County Superior Court with long, tangled hair and told Marden, “I was sworn to keep secret what I am, and they refuse to investigate that.”
Ann Leblanc, director of the State Forensic Services at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, testified that Smith likely suffers from schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia or delusional disorder — according to Pam Ames, his attorney, he has since been diagnosed with delusional disorder — and believes the primary role of his attorneys is to put him in touch with heavy metal rock bands so he could tell them he is God.
Smith had repeatedly tried to fire his attorneys, and wrote in letters to the court that he is a prophet. The letters describe conspiracies involving the Hell’s Angels, the Ku Klux Klan, the Secret Service and the rock bands Phish and Slayer.
Marden subsequently ruled Smith was not competent to stand trial, and ordered him committed to Riverview.
Forced medication
A year later, Smith appeared before Marden with a shaved head, groomed mustache and goatee. He sat silently and almost motionless throughout an hours-long hearing at the Capital Judicial Center after which Marden, under a new state law that went into effect in July 2015, ruled in favor of a motion by the state and ordered Smith be forcibly medicated.
Ames argued at the time that forcible medication was unconstitutional and that the drug could “dope him up so completely so that he can’t think at all and he’s just a zombie, it may help his delusions but it’s not going to help his defense team in preparing him for trial.”
On Monday, Ames said Smith has voluntarily taken both the initial antipsychotic medication prescribed following the December ruling and a different antipsychotic medication that introduced more recently, but remains delusional.
“Throughout my interactions with Mr. Smith, he is consistent in his delusional thinking, and that hasn’t changed despite the forced medication,” she said.
But Smith’s demeanor won’t be the focus of Marden’s attention on Thursday. Instead, the justice will hear testimony from medical staff at Riverview and reports from Smith’s attorneys, Ames and Scott Hess, about their interactions with him.
He will then determine, based on a complicated, nuanced law, whether the now-26-year-old man is, or is likely to become, able to understand the charges against him and to assist attorneys in his defense.
“He has to understand what the process is, and the pleas available to him,” Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber, who is prosecuting the case, said Monday. “But the key part is whether or not he can assist counsel in his defense. That is the sticking point here. That’s a legal determination, not really a medical determination.”
Under state law, Smith could be released should Marden determine he cannot be made competent, but poses no threat to himself or others.
“I don’t think we’re at that stage yet, but at some point, if medication isn’t going to work, then the court has to determine whether or not his competence can be restored,” Macomber said. “If not, that results in the dismissal of the charges.”
‘Orwellian, or Kafkaesque’
According to James Burke, clinical professor of law at the University of Maine School of Law, Thursday’s hearing could have a number of different outcomes which, for Smith, range from bad to worse.
Marden could determine that Smith is now competent, and Smith would be arraigned, enter a plea, and the trial process would begin. If found guilty, Smith would face a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to life.
Marden could rule that Smith is likely to become competent, and return him to Riverview for further treatment.
Or, Marden could find that Smith is not now, nor ever likely to become competent to stand trial. In that case, according to Burke, law dictates that the criminal charges against Smith be dismissed without prejudice, meaning that should he ever become competent, the state could refile the charges.
But what happens to Smith if the charges are dismissed is more controversial — and places his defense attorneys essentially in an unwinnable situation, according to Burke.
If Marden determines he is a danger to himself or others, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services would begin the civil commitment process.
“Essentially he would be just like any other mentally ill person who needs institutionalization — the whole ‘blue-paper’ process where someone who is mentally ill — a danger to themselves or others — is involuntarily committed until they’re treated,” Macomber said.
“You cannot be found to have committed a crime unless it was a voluntary act and you had the requisite state of mind,” said Burke, who has tried many competency and mental health cases in his 40-year career. “If you’re not competent, the rules say you can’t stand trial because it’s not felt to be fair and proper to put someone on trial who has no idea what’s going on.”
A person who is civilly committed remains in the hospital until either he or medical staff believe they have become competent, and the case then is usually decided by a judge. If the person is found to be competent, the state can then refile the charges.
If Marden finds Smith is not a danger to himself or others, however, “He could conceivably be released, if there are no criminal charges pending,” Macomber said. Still, he added, “I would think [they] would have a strong argument to say he’s a danger to himself or others, but I can’t say there’s a definite [danger].”
Adding in possible defense strategies if Smith were found competent — among them, they could argue he was not criminally responsible at the time of the crime — defense attorneys are faced with a complicated task on Thursday, Burke said.
“It puts you into a very strange situation that many defense lawyers would say one wants to avoid at all cost,” he said. “You have no good answer. Obviously you’re sick, but if they make you better, you go to trial. And if you’re incompetent and in the hospital because you pose a risk to yourself or others, you never leave the hospital … but the hospital doesn’t have a treatment that makes you better. So you’re gone for life. It’s a life sentence without being convicted of anything … That’s Orwellian or Kafkaesque or pick your phrase for a really bad situation for someone to find themselves in.”