Bisesi pleads not responsible due to mental disease
Joseph Bisesi III
/ file photo
SYRACUSE -- A man accused of killing his parents appeared in Judge Anthony Aloi's court this morning. Joseph Bisesi III pleaded not responsible due to mental disease or defect.
In September, Bisesi was indicted on first and second degree murder and weapons charges. Investigators said the 27-year-old shot his parents, Joseph and JoEllen, at their Elbridge home in July. He then tried to dispose of their bodies by stuffing them inside a septic tank.
Bisesi suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and read a letter to the court, saying he believed his parents were impostors. In the letter, he also said he believed his real parents were killed by an organized crime family and he thought he had lost his identity. He told the court he turned himself in hoping to get back his name.
Bisesi will be sent to a psychiatric ward for the dangerously mentally ill. His mental health apparently deteriorated after he suffered a head injury in 2005.
