Jeremiah Wright is lead out of the Thibodaux Police Office, in Thibodaux, La. Wright is charged with killing the 7-year-old son of his girlfriend. (AP Photo/The Daily Comet, Abby Taylor)
This recent school photo provided by the Thibodaux, La. Police Department shows 7-year-old Jori Lirette. Jori’s father, Jeremiah Lee Wright, is accused of bludgeoning, decapitating and dismembering his disabled 7-year-old son and leaving the boy’s head near the street so the child’s mother would see it – a killing that brought seasoned police officers to tears, authorities said Monday, Aug. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Thibodaux Police Department)NEW ORLEANS – A Louisiana man told investigators he decapitated his disabled 7-year-old son because he had grown tired of caring for the boy, who had cerebral palsy and heart problems, needed a feeding tube and used a wheelchair, police said.
Police Chief Scott Silverii said Monday that Jeremiah Lee Wright, 30, of Thibodaux waived his right to an attorney and confessed to killing Jori Lirette within a half-hour of being brought to the police station Sunday. Wright was booked with first-degree murder and held in lieu of $5 million bond. Detective Ricky Ross, a department spokesman, said Wright did not have an attorney.
Silverii said the boy’s feet and one hand also were cut off, recovered in several white plastic garbage bags. A preliminary autopsy indicated Jori also had been bludgeoned, he said. His head was left by the side of the road so the child’s mother, 27-year-old Jesslyn Lirette, would see it when she came home, the chief said.
Wright’s only explanation for doing so was “just that he wanted her to feel stupid when she saw the head,” Silverii said.
The killing was the first since 2008 in Thibodaux, a city of about 14,500 people.