NEW YORK (AP) — A man charged with killing and dismembering his mother and dumping her body parts in the trash appeared in court Thursday dressed in a garbage bag and said he'd done nothing wrong — even though detectives say they found a cellphone photo of him holding her severed head. Bahsid McLean, 23, was charged with murder, hindering prosecution and criminal possession of a weapon. According to a criminal complaint, he stabbed Tanya Byrd and then cut up her body with help from an accomplice, William Harris, 26. Byrd, a 45-year-old home health aide, was last seen alive Monday. Her remains were found a day later stuffed in four plastic garbage bags and scattered along four blocks, police said. Detectives said they recovered an image on McLean's phone of him holding his mother's severed head. "I didn't do anything wrong," McLean said during court. McLean's attorney for the arraignment, Jerry Iannece, said his client wore the bizarre covering because he had been urinating on himself. The shorts he had been wearing were soaked through, so court personnel gave him the trash bag to wear, Iannece said. Iannece said his client was off his medication but didn't say what type. McLean was held without bail, was placed on suicide watch in protective custody and was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. "Everybody's innocent until proven guilty," Iannece said. "Obviously this is a troubling case, but we will investigate and defend it thoroughly." Police said they have surveillance footage of the two men at a hardware store at about 7:30 p.m. Monday where they bought a saw and trash bags, then headed back to the Bronx apartment McLean shared with his mother. At about 9:30 p.m. they were caught on surveillance footage lugging bags believed to be the remains, police said. Witnesses told police an SUV dropped the bags off Monday night or early Tuesday. A man walking his dog came upon one of the bags early Tuesday in a trash pile on a street in the Melrose section of the Bronx after the dog sniffed it out. Continued... |