The legal counsel of the man charged with killing 69-year-old Evelyn Player of the Southern Baptist Church in East Baltimore, Maryland alleged that his client is not "criminally responsible" for the incident.
The Christian Headlines reported that lawyer of Manzie Smith, Jr, who was charged with the first-degree murder of Player, said his client is not responsible for his actions despite having a long record of violence against women.
Warren Brown, Smith's lawyer, told Fox Baltimore on Monday that his client actually had no recollection of what took place on Nov. 16, which was the day Player was found stabbed to death in the bathroom of the Southern Baptist Church. Player came in early in church on the day she was murdered because, as an employee, she had to let in the contractors that were renovating the building. She was found dead an hour later.
Brown revealed that Smith plans to plead that he is not criminally responsible, which is regarded in Maryland as a plea for insanity. Brown defended that his client's criminal record reflects his mental health issues and is the very reason that they will make such a plea in his defense. Brown also pointed out that Smith doesn't even understand the reality of the charge against him.
"This is not just somebody who just decides to murder someone. I don't know whether he did it or not, quite frankly. But I do know that if he did do it, it has to be attributed to his mental health," Brown said.
"He has a lot of baggage, mental health issues, whether it's schizophrenia, bipolar, delusional thoughts. He's been in and out of various mental health hospitals," he added. "I think he does realize that he's charged with this very horrible offense, this very horrible crime."
Reacting to Brown's statements, Southern Baptist Church Bishop Donte Hickman expressed through an official statement of his aversion that "disability" is being used to defend a brutal murder, which showed it was more of a planned action.
"I'm disgusted by that characterization of a man who brutally took a woman's life in our church's restroom for the disabled. I cannot believe that someone that did this in our church so early in the morning didn't premeditate this evil attack," Hickman said.
Many regard Smith's crime as "evil" because it was done inside a church and against an elderly woman revered by many for being so motherly and caring. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called the murder an "unfathomable, unthinkable cowardly act" that he put it as a priority case of the local police department.
Initially, it took some time for the suspect that caused Player's untimely death to be discovered, such that Governor Larry Hogan offered a $100,000 reward for information that would lead to the arrest of her murderer. Smith, who was one of the Southern Baptist Church's contractors hired to move pews, was arrested on Dec. 1 not because of the reward but based on DNA evidence gathered in the scene of the crime by Baltimore City Police. Player, on the other hand, was coincidentally laid to rest on the day Smith was arrested.
The Christian Headlines explained that a plea of not criminally responsible to a criminal charge could still bring Smith behind bars once the jurors find him guilty. However, should the jurors find one not criminally responsible, Smith would only be sent for treatment in a mental facility.
