An autopsy has found that a former mental patient discovered hanging from a North Greenwood tree Saturday killed himself.
Leflore County Coroner Debra Sanders said today the state Crime Lab faxed the results to her Monday. The cause of death for Frederick Jermaine Carter, 26, of Sunflower County was found to be hanging, and the manner of death to be suicide, Sanders said.
Sanders said there’s no validity to suspicions raised by state Rep. Willie Perkins that someone else was involved in Carter’s death.
“Oh, my God. We’ve got too many Matlocks out there,” the coroner told the Associated Press, referring to the 1980s and early 1990s television drama starring Andy Griffith.
Perkins, who is president of the Leflore County NAACP chapter, told the Associated Press that it’s unlikely Carter killed himself because the black man was found in a predominantly white area miles from home.
The Greenwood attorney also said photographs of the body raise concerns. Perkins said his doubts are based on his observation of pictures, not an independent expert’s opinion.
“There are a lot of concerns there,” Perkins told USA Today in a story published today. “No. 1, that this individual could not have (hanged) himself without the assistance of someone, if it’s being declared a suicide.
“Why would someone from Sunflower County come to North Greenwood, the predominantly white housing area of Greenwood? Why would someone that far away come and hang themselves in North Greenwood. ... That does not pass the smell test.”
State Sen. David Jordan, also of Greenwood, told USA Today the black community in Greenwood is “very much concerned. There’s not a single black that’s talked to us who believes he killed himself.”
He said there are historical underpinnings for blacks being suspicious about violence being perpetrated against them.
When contacted by the Commonwealth this morning, Jordan declined comment, saying he had not heard about the autopsy’s results and wanted to talk to Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks first.
Carter’s stepfather, a painter, told investigators he and Carter were working in Greenwood on Wednesday when he went to get tools and Carter wandered away. His family told Banks that Carter spent eight months in the state mental hospital in 2008 and had attempted suicide in the past, by drug overdose and by cutting himself.
Sanders estimated that Carter died at least 24 hours before his body was found around 12:30 p.m. Friday. The body was hanging from a tree in a wooded area off Puckett Avenue between East Claiborne Avenue and Robert E. Lee Drive Extended.
Banks has said Carter’s only injuries were from the hanging itself, and the only footprints around the tree matched his tennis shoes and indicate that he walked around under the tree.
He said Carter likely stood on an old table under the tree and kicked it out from under him.
“There is no sign that we could find whatsoever that anyone else was involved,” Banks told the Associated Press. “I haven’t seen anything to change my mind, and I’m looking really hard.”
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
