Lawyer: Judge rules US father not guilty by insanity in decapitation of his disabled child

NEW ORLEANS – The attorney for a man accused of cutting off the head of his disabled 7-year-old son says a judge has ruled the man not guilty by reason of insanity.

Kerry Cuccia says the ruling by state District Judge John LeBlanc came Friday in the case against 32-year-old Jeremiah Wright of Thibodaux.

Cuccia says Wright will be returned to the state mental hospital in Jackson where he had been held.

Wright has been in custody since August 2011. That’s when Jori Lirette was killed and his head left in the yard of the home Wright was sharing with Lirette’s mother, Jesslyn Lirette. The boy required around-the-clock care and was fed through a tube.

Cuccia says prosecutors agreed to the ruling.

A call seeking comment from District Attorney Cam Morvant was not immediately returned.

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