AUGUSTA, Maine — A Gardiner man charged with killing and dismembering his father has been ruled incompetent to stand trial and will remain in a state psychiatric facility.
Leroy Smith III was scheduled to be arraigned on a murder charge Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court in connection with the May death of 56-year-old Leroy Smith Jr. inside the apartment they shared.
But his defense attorneys asked a judge to postpone the hearing and their motion was unopposed by prosecutors.
He is being held at the Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta.
The Kennebec Journal reports that the 24-year-old Smith told the judge in a note that he wants to fire his court-appointed attorneys.
The younger man told investigators he killed his father because he had sexually abused him.