From his first interviews with arresting officers – called to the scene after a passerby spotted Jori’s head alongside West Seventh Street in Thibodaux – Wright maintained that Jori was an inanimate object. The specifics changed – ranging from a robot to a CPR dummy – but the overarching delusion that Jori was “a prop” remained consistent, Deland testified.
Further, Wright repeatedly told inquirers he believed he had to kill his son in order to break free of the social experiment. Wright believed he had a chip in his head and told doctors of a running commentary only he could hear in which external people were talking about him, musings that started friendly but devolved into castigation, Deland said.
“He believes all of us are a part of (the experiment),” Deland told the court, “still, to this day.”
George Seiden, retained by the state, agreed with Deland’s testimony.
