Cannibal Who Hacked A Man To Death And Ate His Brain And Eyeball Committed To Psychiatric Facility

A cannibal who hacked a homeless man to death before eating parts of his brain and one of his eyeballs has been sentenced to up to 60 years in a maximum security psychiatric hospital in Middletown, Conn.

According to the Connecticut Post, Tyree Lincoln Smith, 35, apologized for his actions before the panel of three judges. "I'm really sorry for what I did, that I couldn't be myself," Smith said. "It really had nothing to do with the other person."

“We waited two years to hear Tyree say he was sorry," a relative of the deceased told the Post. "What he said today caught me off guard, but I feel he meant what he said."

In December 2011, Smith, who lived in Florida, encountered a homeless man named Angel “Tun Tun” Gonzalez at his abandoned childhood home in Bridgeport, Conn. As the New York Daily News reports, Smith hacked Gonzalez’s face with an axe.

According to Fox CT, Smith then removed parts of Gonalez’s brain as well as an eye and a piece of his skull. He put the items in a bag and went to Lakeview Cemetery in Bridgeport, where “he ate the eyeball, which tasted like an oyster, and the brain matter,” according to the warrant.

Smith was captured in Florida and brought back to Connecticut to stand trial. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder in July.

Due to the circumstances surrounding the case, the three judges decided to have Smith committed rather than release him after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. "It is overwhelmingly clear that his discharge from custody would constitute a danger to himself and others," Superior Court Judge John Kavanewsky said, according to the Connecticut Post.

Others echoed Kavanewsky’s sentiments. "He poses a significant danger to himself and the community," social worker Julie Jacobs said Monday.

"I am concerned there is an expectation he [Smith] would do this to other people if he was allowed to be free," State's Attorney John Smriga added.