1-26-2012 Mississippi:A state prisoner accused of killing a Louisiana priest last year in Waveland was found dead in his cell Thursday at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, according to a spokesperson.
State inmate Jeremy Wayne Manieri was found dead in his cell at 5 a.m. Thursday by correctional officers, spokeswoman Suzanne Singletary said.
Singletary said it appears Manieri killed himself, but did not disclose the manner.
Manieri's attorney, Brian Alexander, told the Associated Press that Manieri "had a sheet wrapped around his neck" when he was discovered dead.
An investigation division at the Department of Corrections and the state Highway Patrol investigates suicides at all Mississippi correction facilities.
"Further details will be released as they become available," Singletary said.
Manieri, 33, was serving five years for failure to register as a sex offender in Hancock County. He was sentenced in August on the sex crime, but awaiting trial on murder and grand larceny offenses relating to the priest's death.
Manieri was accused of killing the Rev. Edward Everitt, 71, and the stealing the preist's money and vehicle before Manieri took his ex-wife and children on a Disney World vacation to Florida.
Manieri claimed in an audio confession with Polk County, Fla., authorities that he and the Houma, La., priest smoked marijuana and that the priest fondled him in the hours leading up to Everitt's death.
Everitt's body was found July 11 in a Waveland beach house that priests from Hammond used as a retreat villa.
Manieri was arrested the following day at a hotel near Winterhaven, Fla.
Authorities said Manieri had bought 3-day passes to Disney World for his ex-wife, his stepson and daughter.
Manieri might have been in jail at the time if it weren't for a mix-up between the state's prison and court systems, authorities have said.
Manieri pleaded guilty to molesting a child in 2006 in Hancock and was sentenced to two years in prison, with 1 year suspended.
When he was released, he failed to register as a sex offender and wound up serving another 16 months for that before being sentenced to probation early 2011.
Manieri never reported to his probation officer, authorities have said, and if the violation had been noticed, he could have been sent him back to prison.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections received the probation paperwork from the Hancock County Circuit Clerk's office, "but a glitch in the computer system kept the information from being received by the probation officer, who was not at fault," prisons spokeswoman Tara Booth said in July. ..Source.. by Cherie Ward - The Mississippi Press
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Manieri found dead in his cell, attorney shocked over possible suicide
The attorney representing the man suspected of killing a Louisiana priest at a Waveland beach house in July said he was shocked to learn Jeremy W. Manieri was found dead in his state prison cell this morning.
“I’m still trying to process it,” Brian Alexander told the Sun Herald.
Alexander said he was notified by e-mail this morning that corrections officers found Manieri dead about 5 p.m. in his cell at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.
Suzanne Singletary, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, said preliminary information suggests he died by suicide.
Manieri was serving time at the state prison in Pearl for failing to register as a sex offender following a conviction on child molestation. Prison records list his tentative release date as March 25, 2015.
He also was awaiting prosecution on charges of murder and grand larceny in the slaying of the Rev. Edward Everitt, shot in the head at a beach house used by his Dominican order. Manieri was later arrested in Florida, where authorities said he had driven the priest’s car to take his family on a vacation to Disney World.
Alexander this morning said he has spoken to the coroner handling Manieri’s death investigation.
Manieri’s murder case has not yet been presented to a grand jury. Alexander had filed a motion asking a judge to have the case reviewed by a grand jury outside of Hancock County.
“A decision has not been made and a hearing has not even been set on the motion,” Alexander said.
Everitt, 71, was pastor of Holy Ghost Church in Hammond, La., and at Our Lady of Pompeii Church in nearby Tickfaw.
Manieri, a handyman, had claimed he had smoked marijuana with the priest and had woken up to find the cleric was fondling him, according to a detective’s testimony in a preliminary hearing. ..Source.. by ROBIN FITZGERALD
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Autopsy Rules Suicide On Inmate Death
1-27-2012 Mississippi:
JACKSON, Miss. -- An autopsy has ruled that a man accused of killing a Roman Catholic priest and taking the victim's car on a family vacation to Walt Disney World died in a jailhouse suicide.
Jeremy Wayne Manieri, 33, was found dead early Thursday in a Rankin County prison cell with a sheet wrapped around his neck.
Rankin County Coroner Jimmy Roberts said on Friday that Manieri died from death by hanging.
Manieri was charged with shooting the Rev. Ed Everitt of Hammond, La., in July 2011 at a beach house in Waveland, Miss.
Manieri's attorney, Brian Alexander, has said he was told that Manieri was found in his cell at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County, where he serving a five-year sentence for failure to register as a sex offender. ..Source.. by 16WAPT.com
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