Psychologist finds Cory Bigsby mentally incompetent to stand trial; report details concerns

A Circuit Court judge on Friday ordered the father of a missing Hampton boy sent to Eastern State Hospital to attempt to “restore” his mental competency so he can stand trial on a host of pending felony child neglect charges.

That came after clinical psychologist Weare A. Zwemer of Chesapeake weighed in on Cory Jamar Bigsby Jr.’s mental condition under a court-ordered evaluation and determined him incompetent.

While Bigsby — the father of missing 4-year-old Codi Bigsby — “possesses a factual understanding of judicial proceedings,” he “lacks a rational appreciation of his legal circumstance or the ability to cooperate with counsel in the preparation of a defense,” Zwemer wrote.

One of Bigsby’s attorneys, Curtis Brown, asked Judge James C. Hawks to send Bigsby to Eastern State, in Williamsburg.

“The doctor said he’s not faking,” Brown said after the hearing. “It happens all the time that the guy says, ‘I want to be incompetent so I can get out of going to trial.’ But (Bigbsy) wasn’t like that.”

Hawks set a June 14 hearing to determine whether progress has been made.

Bigsby called Hampton Police the morning of Jan. 31, 2022, to report his son missing from the family’s Buckroe Beach home. He said he last saw Codi sleeping in bed at about 2 a.m.

There’s been no trace of Codi since, with the boy’s last known contact from anyone else being 13 months earlier, for the holidays in late 2020.

Bigsby hasn’t been charged in Codi’s disappearance.

But he faces 25 counts of child neglect stemming from his admissions that he’d leave Codi and his brothers alone for hours at a time. The charges also include three counts of child abuse and two counts of failing to get medical attention for a child.

Separately this week, Bigsby attorney Amina Matheny-Willard filed a motion to dismiss all charges, alleging significant missteps by police and prosecutors.

That includes, she said, the failure by police to get Bigsby an attorney when he told a detective during a heated exchange while in custody to “get me a (expletive) lawyer.”

Police Chief Mark Talbot replaced the case’s lead investigator at the time, saying Bigsby’s request should have been honored. But the charges have so far stuck because Bigsby gave his statements before asking for a lawyer.

Matheny-Willard also said in her motion that prosecutors “obtained a statement” from Bigsby last August while he was locked up at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. That statement, taken by a correctional officer, wasn’t provided to the defense until nearly three months later, she said.

“I’m not going to discuss the contents, but just suffice it to say it was concerning enough for us to ask for a (competency) evaluation,” she said, saying the delay violated the prosecution’s obligation to share documents in a timely way.

But Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell said such discovery rules “are for pending charges only,” and the statement Bigsby made at the jail doesn’t apply.

“What I will tell you is that statement was in reference to the investigation involving Codi, which is not before the court right now,” Bell said.

Shortly after Bigsby gave the statement, police searched an outdoor area in Maryland, outside Washington, a law enforcement source said. No new leads were found.

Hawks will rule on Matheny-Willard’s motion June 14, the same day as the competency progress hearing.

Zwemer is the third clinical psychologist to weigh in on Bigsby’s mental health.

In an 8-page report obtained by the Daily Press, Zwemer said Bigsby understands many aspects of the judicial system, but several areas are of concern.

For example, Zwemer wrote that he asked Bigsby why the attorneys might have questions about his mental health competency.

”Maybe they think I’m smart,” Bigsby replied. “Maybe they want to give me my kids back. Maybe I might be ready to go back home.”

That response, Zwemer wrote, reflects “a marked deficit” in Bigsby’s understanding of where things stand with his case.

As for why he was charged, Bigsby told Zwemer he faced child neglect allegations for “buying too many groceries,” and that he “didn’t take the kids when they were asleep.”

“Mr. Bigsby clearly failed to appreciate the significance of the charges,” the doctor wrote in the report.

Zwemer also said Bigsby claimed “no recognition” of the names of his own sons — the boys he’s accused of neglecting. At the time of Codi’s disappearance, Cory was also taking care of twin boys, then aged 2, and an older brother, then 5.

Instead, Bigsby told Zwemer he was parenting only two children — an 11-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl — at the time. Zwemer said when he showed him the indictments, Bigsby claimed the court papers were “mixed up” and “perjurized.”

Moreover, Bigsby’s telling of his family and personal history was “wholly divergent” from what family members were saying or “even what he informed earlier examiners,” Zwemer wrote.

“He claimed that he was abandoned by his mother at birth, raised in a series of foster homes, resided in Waco, Texas, and had been charged with a series of petty crimes in a civilian adult life,” Zwemer wrote, saying that story didn’t match what other sources said.

“The defendant showed elevated irritation when this writer challenged him on the discrepancies.”

There was other “frankly bizarre behavior” contained in jail records: Bigsby said he “heard voices in his head” and wanted to remove a head machine that was causing “mucus from his brain to fall into his eyes,” and said the warden was “a mall cop posing as another inmate.”

On an intelligence test, Zwemer said Bigsby scored in the 5th percentile, in the “borderline range of intellectual functioning.”

That appeared to be a rapid decline in Bigsby’s intelligence while locked up. In a news conference the day after Codi was reported missing, Talbot said Bigsby — a retired U.S. Army sergeant — “seems to be quite intelligent” and “quite capable.”

But Zwemer wrote that he didn’t believe Bigsby deliberately threw the test — or that he was faking a mental illness.

In fact, Bigsby asserted he didn’t have issues that would preclude him from going to trial.

“Such a declaration is uncommon in defendants feigning mental health illness to avoid criminal prosecution,” Zwemer wrote.

While Bigsby is in the hospital, Zwemer said, his condition can be more fully assessed, the possibility of faking his condition can be definitively ruled out, and medication can be provided.

After the hearing, Bigsby’s family continues to say he did nothing wrong.

“There’s no proof he did anything to his son, so I don’t agree with none of it,” said his uncle, Glenn Hinnant, who said that merely because Codi went missing doesn’t mean his father killed him.

“It troubles me every day — every day, Codi and Cory are on my mind,” said Bigsby’s aunt, Jeannette Hinnant, who also believes Cory did nothing wrong. “I live, eat, and sleep with them.”

“I continue to believe that my nephew is alive,” said Bigsby’s sister, Tandaleyia Butler. “And I continue to believe that one day he will return home.”

Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com