One month after an alleged serial killer's outbursts in court prompted the postponement of his murder trial, a judge declared the Clinton man mentally fit Tuesday and reset his trial to begin in November.
Authorities say Ryan Joseph Sharpe, 43, shot and killed Carroll Breeden Sr. as the 66-year-old BREC commissioner was doing yard work outside his rural Port Hudson-Pride Road home in September 2017.
The killing came during a spree of random shootings in East Feliciana and East Baton Rouge parishes that investigators connected to Sharpe. He was convicted of murder last year in one of the East Feliciana killings, but he has yet to stand trial for Breeden’s death.
After more than seven years of anticipation, Sharpe’s trial was set to begin April 7 inside the 19th Judicial District Courthouse. But on the opening day, before prospective jurors were brought into the courtroom, Sharpe told presiding District Judge Collette Greggs he wanted to fire his defense attorney, Thomas Damico, and began making a number of bizarre claims.
He doubled down on the request to represent himself during a sanity hearing a day later and told Greggs a nonexistent FBI agent cautioned him against having an attorney. He also claimed he was leaving Angola, the state prison where he has been housed since his conviction last year, and moving to another state.
Greggs pumped the brakes on the trial and established a sanity commission to test Sharpe’s competency. Breeden’s family and loved ones stormed out of the courtroom in frustration as the judge made her ruling during the April 8 hearing.
Sharpe appeared more subdued and remained largely silent at Tuesday's hearing, as attorneys presented the findings of two doctors who evaluated him. Both found him competent to stand trial. The defendant and his legal team agreed to the findings without argument.Â
Greggs set the new trail date in East Baton Rouge Parish for Nov. 17.
A unanimous East Feliciana Parish jury found Sharpe guilty of second-degree murder at the end of his trial last August. He was convicted of killing Brad DeFranceschi, a 48-year-old Boy Scout leader, in October 2017. East Feliciana prosecutors alleged that Sharpe shot the father of two as DeFranceschi trimmed weeds outside a La. 63 home on the Avondale Scout Reservation. A judge sentenced Sharpe to life in prison on Oct. 15.
A trial in 2019 ended with a jury convicting Sharpe of DeFranceschi's killing by an 11-1 vote. But that conviction was thrown out in June 2020 after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed nonunanimous verdicts.
Sharpe is also accused of fatally shooting Tommy Bass, 62, outside his East Feliciana residence on La. 960 in July 2017. He was charged with wounding Buck Hornsby after authorities said he shot that man outside his residence near La. 63 a week before Breeden's death.
Sharpe told East Feliciana Sheriff's deputies that the motive of his killings was to fill government-issued hunting “tags.â€
