AUGUSTA — During his initial court appearance Thursday, Leroy Smith III of Gardiner, the man accused of killing his father at their Cannard Street home, was ordered held in jail until he can undergo a psychological exam.
No plea was entered, and Justice Donald Marden said Smith will be held in Kennebec County Jail until a July 15 court appearance.
Smith was charged Tuesday with killing his father, 56-year-old Leroy Smith II, whose remains were found Monday morning in nine trash bags in a wooded area off Lincoln Street in Richmond, about eight miles from the Cannard Street apartment.
Standing beside attorney Pam Ames, Smith told Marden he did understand the charges.
As Smith left the courtroom, he said, “I am a political prisoner,” and said to look on Twitter for “Commander Ken Koon.”
According to an affidavit from Maine State Police Detective Jonah O’Roak, Smith told police he used three knives to murder and dismember his father, then put the remains in trash bags in a nearby dumpster.
He allegedly told police that when the trash was not picked up, he removed the remains and drove them to the wooded area in Richmond, where he planned to bury them on Monday.
He said he used three knives to dismember the body, and that “a Ginsu knife would not cut through his father’s spinal cord, so he used another knife” to cut up his father in the bathtub.
Smith was initially arrested early Monday morning in Westbrook on a Westborough, Massachusetts, fugitive-from-justice warrant. The warrant charged that Leroy Smith III violated a protection-from-harassment order obtained by his landlord in October, Westborough Police Chief Alan Gordon said Tuesday.
He allegedly told police at the time where to find his father’s remains.
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