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Jury selection was halted Wednesday afternoon for a man charged with killing a New Orleans police officer after the defendant rubbed feces on his face, head and mouth in the courtroom, according to two law enforcement sources.

Travis Boys, 35, has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to the charge that he murdered NOPD Officer Daryle Holloway during an escape from custody on June 20, 2015. A jury was being impaneled Wednesday for a trial expected to open testimony Monday.

Orleans Parish prosecutor Taylor Anthony was at the podium questioning the day's second panel of prospective jurors when the incident occurred around 4 p.m.

As the prosecutor spoke, Boys, seated at the defense table between attorneys Billy Sothern and Matthew Vogel, pulled from his suit pocket excrement that he had wrapped in a napkin, apparently during an earlier restroom break. He began rubbing the feces on his face and head without saying a word.

Criminal District Judge Karen Herman ordered an immediate halt to the proceedings, dismissed the jury panel that had witnessed the incident, and ordered a new competency evaluation for the defendant on Thursday.

Boys, who faces life imprisonment if convicted of murdering the 22-year NOPD veteran officer, already had been deemed competent to stand trial following a Sept. 21 hearing in Herman's courtroom that lasted nearly six hours.

At that hearing, two members of the court-appointed sanity commission -- forensic psychologist Dr. Rafael Salcedo and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Richard Richoux -- recommended that the defendant be deemed competent for trial, concluding that he suffered from no mental disease or defect that would prevent him from assisting in his defense.

Tulane University professor and psychiatrist Dr. James Brad McConville, hired by Boys' defense team, offered a conflicting opinion. McConville told the judge he did not think it was a "close call" that Boys could not currently understand his legal predicament or assist his attorneys.

"He doesn't understand his legal rights," McConville testified at that hearing. "He would have significant difficulty testifying without incriminating himself. ... My recommendation is that he be found incompetent to stand trial and undergo further testing and legal-rights education."

Herman ultimately sided with the court-appointed doctors and ordered Boys' trial to proceed as scheduled. Whether Wednesday's courtroom-clearing incident was nothing more than a desperate stunt or a genuine psychotic episode will be contested Thursday, likely with input from the same mental health professionals.

Boys arrived in court Wednesday morning sporting a right eye that was swollen shut. The first jury panel was delayed while Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office officials summoned medical personnel to administer treatment. Sothern told the court that "an infection" had caused his client's eye to swell shut.

A new jury panel is expected to be called in for voir dire Thursday morning if Herman determines the trial need not be delayed.

He's putting on an act. Pretty common.

Why not institute automatic death penalty for convicted cop killers?

Yeah... He's crazy alright

Living in NOLA might make anyone crazy.

When I was growing up, the children in our family were highly encouraged to read missionary books, and I did. I remember reading about a tribe of people in the deep interior of Africa. They felt sorry for the missionary because he didn't have a crown on his head like all of them did. Their crowns were made up of these flies that had extremely bright green bodies, and what kept them on the heads of the men in that tribe was the feces they rubbed into their scalps.

This fella looks a lot like the folks in that tribe.

Damn!

Getting shit-faced in court!

I have a few suggestions....


Other than 2 mins in a room with me...

Boys will be Boys.
It's odd he was competent enough to kill someone yet now facing a death penalty, he can't sit without rubbing shit on his face. I bet he sits to eat, watch TV etc without rubbing shit on his self.....typical killer...a fucking coward.

Did he get that idea from Training Day?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
My first thought EXACTLY. They sure it wasn't extra chunky peanut butter packed in the crack of his ass?

Funny it happened during court and not before or after.

quote:

Originally posted by blueye:
Funny it happened during court and not before or after.

It's a puzzler, ain't it?

Smearing shit on himself is a metaphor for the choices he's made in his life. That little piece of performance art will not save him from his fate. No thinking person would be swayed by such things.

I think it's cool!

Now handcuff the MoFo with his hands in the approved position behind his back so he can't wash his face for two or three days...

This is not surprising. We have had other defendants make "crazy" claims. One who killed a local deputy sheriff claimed he was not competent to stand trial because he ate lead paint as a child. He shot the deputy then came back and shot him twice more. Somehow the judge did not buy it.

I would have loved to be in the courtroom to see the reactions of the judge and attorneys.

If he did get the idea from Training Day he forgot the part where he's supposed to lick his fingers clean and use peanut butter.