Mississippi
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A Mississippi grand jury could soon take up the bizarre case of a convicted sex offender who is charged with killing a Catholic priest and taking the cleric's car for a Disney vacation.

Jeremy Wayne Manieri, 32, is charged in the death of the Rev. Ed Everitt, of Hammond, La. Authorities say the priest was robbed and shot twice in the head in July at a beach house in Waveland, Miss. Manieri did construction work at the house, which the priest and others used as a weekend retreat.

Crosby Parker, the assistant district attorney who has been working the case in Hancock County, Miss., said that the investigative report is being finalized in the case and that he's hopeful it will go to a grand jury in the near future.

Parker declined to be more specific because grand jury proceedings are secret.

There's likely to be much legal wrangling in the case.

Manieri's attorney, Brian Alexander, of Bay St. Louis, filed a complaint with the Mississippi Bar over a political commercial for state Attorney General Jim Hood's successful re-election campaign.

The complaint, dated Nov. 22 and obtained by The Associated Press, said the commercial tainted the prospective jury pool by referring to Manieri as someone who "murdered a 70-year-old priest in cold blood." Hood's campaign used the commercial to portray his political opponent, a former judge, as weak on crime. Hood, the incumbent Democrat, defeated Republican Steve Simpson in the Nov. 8 election.

Alexander said Thursday that Hood's campaign "slandered and prejudiced my client."

"Given the prejudicial malfeasance committed by Attorney General Hood and his ratification of same in state and national media, I have serious reservations as to whether an impartial grand jury can be found in Hancock County, or the state for that matter," Alexander said.

Police say Manieri shot Everitt, then picked up his ex-wife and children in Everitt's silver Chevy HHR and set out for a Walt Disney World vacation. After stopping at a hotel in Mobile, Ala., they headed for Disney, where Manieri bought passes to the park. They planned to get an early start at the theme park the next day, but Manieri was arrested when he walked outside the hotel near Winter Haven, Fla., to have a cigarette.

Authorities say Manieri gave a detailed confession to investigators in Florida, but stopped cooperating by the time he returned to Mississippi.

Manieri allegedly told Florida authorities that Everitt picked him up the day of the slaying, and that the two then ate lunch at the Silver Slipper casino. He claimed they got drunk and high and he passed out and that when he woke up, Everitt was fondling him.

Manieri claimed he went outside to smoke a cigarette, then went to the bedroom and got Everitt's .380 caliber pistol and shot the cleric twice in the head.

Authorities have said preliminary tests found marijuana in the priest's system, but the results of more reliable toxicology tests have not been made public.

Manieri is charged with murder and grand larceny.

Everitt, a 70-year-old native of Houston, was pastor of Holy Ghost Church in Hammond and Our Lady of Pompeii Church in nearby Tickfaw. The Dominicans, a Catholic order that dates to the year 1216, operate the churches and a school in the community about 50 miles northwest of New s have said Everitt had Sundays off and typically went to spend time at the beach retreat. Manieri did construction jobs around the house.

Manieri had been held in the Marion County jail on a $2 million bond in the priest's death, but he was later sentenced to five years for violating his probation by not meeting with his probation officer. He was on probation for failing to register as a sex offender. He's being held in the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl.

Manieri pleaded guilty to molesting a girl in a 2006 case, which the attorney general's campaign used in its attack ad.

Simpson, a former Circuit Court judge, sentenced Manieri to two years, but suspended one year and gave him credit for time served, according to court records. Manieri was required to register as a sex offender. Simpson has said prosecutors reached a plea agreement in the case, so he didn't have access to the evidence and based the sentence on the prosecuting attorney's recommendation.

Manieri failed to register as a sex offender after being released and ended up serving another 16 months for failing to register. He was put on probation when he was released but never met with his probation officer. He could have been in prison for that at the time the priest was killed, but it went unnoticed.

The state corrections agency blamed the oversight on a computer system glitch.

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