JACKSON, Miss. — Preliminary autopsy results indicate a black man found hanging from a tree in Mississippi killed himself, and authorities said Tuesday there's no validity to an NAACP leader's allegation that someone else was involved.
Frederick Jermaine Carter, a 26-year-old Sunflower County man with a history of mental illness and suicide attempts, was found Friday in a field near Greenwood, said Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks.
Banks and Leflore County Coroner Debra Sanders both said Tuesday that the autopsy's preliminary finding of suicide is consistent with what they saw at the scene.
Sanders, who is black, questioned suggestions by Leflore County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Willie Perkins that someone else was involved in Carter's death.
"We've got too many Matlocks out there," the coroner said, referring to the 1980s and early 1990s television legal drama starring Andy Griffith.
Perkins said Tuesday he had not seen the preliminary autopsy findings and he would like to review the results before deciding his next move.
"Then I will know best if it answered all the concerns people have," Perkins said. "Otherwise we will continue to monitor the situation."
Perkins had said earlier that it's unlikely Carter killed himself because Carter was found in a predominantly white area miles from his home in neighboring Sunflower County.
Carter's stepfather told investigators he was working in the area with his stepson when Carter wandered away, which he was prone to do because of his metal problems, Banks said.
Perkins, the NAACP leader who is a lawyer and Mississippi state lawmaker, also said photographs of the body raise concerns because they show one of Carter's feet touching a bench under the tree and another hanging off. Perkins said his doubts are based on his observation of the pictures, not an independent expert's opinion.
The sheriff said there was no bench at the scene. He said evidence indicates that Carter dragged the frame of an old table from one side of the tree to the other, propped it against the tree trunk, then tied himself to the lowest limb. The frame probably broke, possibly because Carter kicked it out from under himself, Banks said.
Banks said there were several other indications Carter took his own life, including a witness who saw him alone in the area and that there was only one set of footprints by the tree.
"There is no sign that we could find whatsoever that anyone else was involved," Banks said. "I haven't seen anything to change my mind, and I'm looking really hard."
Banks said Carter's family said he spent eight months in the state mental hospital in 2008 and had attempted suicide in the past, by drug overdose and cutting himself.