Accused cop-killer Travis Boys halts jury selection by rubbing feces on his face
Travis Boys, charged with killing a New Orleans police officer in 2015, halted jury selection in his first-degree murder trial late Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 18) when he rubbed feces on his face, head and mouth in the courtroom, according to two law enforcement sources.
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 next 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.
Jury selection began Wednesday (Oct. 18) for the first-degree murder trial of Travis Boys, accused of killing NOPD Officer Daryle Holloway during a June 2015 escape.
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.
Boys' actions on Wednesday have been mirrored twice in recent years inside Jefferson Parish courtrooms.
In August 2011, robbery defendant Deshaun Griffin disrupted proceedings in the 24th Judicial District courtroom of Judge Lee Faulkner when he defecated inside his jail jumpsuit and smeared feces on his beard. Griffin, who had a documented history of faking mental illness, was found in contempt of court and sentenced to six months in jail for the stunt.
And in March 2015, Bryan Schwartz, a Terrytown man charged in the killing of his girlfriend's mother, took similar steps to mask his face inside the 24th JDC courtroom of Judge Henry Sullivan. Schwartz attempted to hang himself in the Jefferson Parish jail the next day, but eventually pleaded guilty in April 2016 to being a principal to manslaughter. He was sentenced to 20 years.
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