Brain-eating man held in US

2012-02-02 13:04

Bridgeport - A US man charged with hacking a homeless man to death with an axe and eating his brain was ordered on Wednesday to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Tyree Lincoln Smith, aged 35, stared blankly as he stood with his hands chained behind his back during his arraignment on a murder charge. It was his first court appearance since he was returned to Connecticut on Tuesday following his arrest last week in Florida.

The Connecticut Post  reports that the judge ordered the evaluation at the urging of Smith's lawyer, Joseph Bruckmann, and ordered him to remain in custody in lieu of $1m bond. The next hearing was scheduled for February 14.

Smith is charged in the December 15 killing of Angel Gonzalez, whose body was found on the third floor of an abandoned home.

Prosecutor Donal Collimore urged the judge to set a high bond, describing the crime as "extremely heinous".

Talitcha Frazier, a sister-in-law of the victim, said she remembered seeing Smith asking for change on the street.

Blood on his hands

"I think at the time I told him to get a job. I had no idea then that he had killed my brother-in-law," Frasier said on the courthouse steps after the hearing.

Smith came to the attention of authorities when his cousin contacted police about Gonzalez's slaying. She told detectives that Smith had arrived at her house on December 15 and said he wanted to "get blood on his hands" before going to the abandoned home, where he used to live, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

The next day, Smith returned to the cousin's house with blood on his pants, hands and an axe, the affidavit said. Police say he told his cousin he had "gotten his blood".

Smith's cousin said he told her that he was sleeping on a porch at the abandoned home when he was awakened by another man and invited inside. Then Smith described beating the man's face and head with the axe and collecting one of his eyes and some of his brain matter, which he consumed in a nearby cemetery, the affidavit said.

The cousin told detectives she called Smith's mother, who suggested to police on December 16 that they check the abandoned home and that her son had "mental issues", the affidavit said.

- SAPA