AUGUSTA, Maine — A Portland psychiatrist testified Tuesday that a Gardiner man charged with killing and dismembering his father in their apartment in May 2014 has improved substantially since being forcibly medicated a year ago, but remains delusional.
Leroy Smith III, has been diagnosed with delusional disorder and, in a precedent-setting case, was ordered by a judge to be forcibly medicated to see if he could become competent to stand trial.
Smith, now 27, 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, Smith 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. He has since said his father was poisoning him with rat poison.
In January 2015, a state forensic expert testified that Leroy Smith III likely suffers from schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia or delusional disorder and believes he is “the god of the kingdom of Heaven,” and that 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. Justice Donald Marden ruled Smith was not competent to stand trial and ordered him committed to Riverview Psychiatric Center.
On Tuesday, Dr. Carlyle Voss, a Portland forensic psychiatrist, told Kennebec County Justice Michaela Murphy that when he met with Smith last month, Smith was pleasant and articulate, but still firmly believes the “essentially identical delusions” he spoke of when Voss first interviewed him in 2015.
Voss said Smith is intelligent and understands the charges he faces, but still believes he needed to kill his father because the older man was poisoning Smith.
In January 2016, a psychiatric nurse practitioner who had treated Smith since he arrived at Riverview in June 2014, said she diagnosed him with delusional disorder — in which the only symptom is the delusion itself — but had not ruled out schizophrenia. She testified that even if Smith were medicated, he likely would still have delusions, although he would be better able to manage them. She said she was confident of a “substantial likelihood” that an antipsychotic medication could restore Smith to competency.
Under a new state law, Marden ruled in January 2016 that Smith be involuntarily medicated for six months to see if that would affect his competency.
Attorney Pamela Ames, who with Scott Hess represents Smith, 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.”
In June 2016, Marden returned Smith to Riverview for more medication after state psychologists said Smith had made significant progress but still fully believed a “very complex” delusion, including that his father was trying to poison him.
At the time, Marden ruled Smith competent to be arraigned, and Smith told Marden he wanted to plead guilty, but Marden said he would enter a plea of not criminally responsible.
On Tuesday, Voss said that Smith has been taking anti-psychotic medications for more than a year — first Zyprexa, and now Haldol — and has since been moved from a “high-intensity” unit at Riverview to a “low-intensity” unit.
“He’s living a more comfortable life, but the delusional material is absolutely fixed,” Voss said. “It’s just his total reality. There was hope when he was given medication that his beliefs could soften,” but Voss said at this point it’s “highly unlikely” that other medications would affect the delusions, which he said do prevent Smith from assisting his attorneys with his defense.
Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber, who is prosecuting the case, asked Voss if he was aware that Smith had discussed with his attorneys a bifurcated trial, in which the trial would be conducted in two phases, the first to determine whether or not he’s guilty and the second to determine if Smith is competent.
Voss said Smith “very clearly said that if he’s not mandated to take medications, he will discontinue them right away,” which he said raises concerns about Smith’s potential actions.
Questioned by Murphy about whether wanting to proceed with a split trial is necessarily “irrational,” Voss said, “It’s just a question of, is it worth going through the first part. That’s a question for the court to decide … it’s up to the court to decide if that’s within his constitutional rights.”
Following a conference with attorneys in her chambers, Murphy continued the hearing to an as-yet unscheduled date.