Derrick Todd Lee is not a white man.
Nor does he own a white truck.
But documents in Lee’s criminal record suggest his personality does match many traits law enforcement agencies said the South Louisiana serial killer would have.
St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office in May announced it was searching for a “good looking man” with medium to light skin and a muscular build. The man tried to murder and rape a Breaux Bridge woman last July after convincing her to let him in her home to use a phone book.
The Multi-Agency Homicide Task Force identified this man as the serial killer suspect, calling attention to his charming and smooth talking abilities – a behavior that allowed him to gain his victims’ trust.
Lee displayed this same charming and smooth talking behavior on Nov. 9, 2000, when he tried to convince a judge to shorten his prison sentence.
A West Feliciana Parish judge sentenced Lee to two years in jail in January 2000 when he pleaded guilty to trying to run over a sheriff’s deputy with his own vehicle. Lee had jumped in the vehicle to escape his girlfriend’s aggravated battery claims.
Lee allegedly kicked and stomped on his girlfriend when wearing cowboy boots in the heat of a bar fight. The court records did not disclose the cause of the fight.
Though Lee actually was released from state prison for good behavior parole, his request argued for a shortened sentence on the grounds of being a reformed and productive citizen.
“The only thing that I can do now is to try to be a better person than I have previously been by governing my actions now and in the future,” Lee said in his petition to the court. “… I have tried very hard to have goals in my life while in prison that will carry over once I am released from incarceration.”
Lee told the court he would use his time in prison as a learning experience and hoped to lead a law-abiding life. He wrote about his new-found awareness and concern for his property and that of others.
“I will be a productive citizen, an asset to all,” Lee said. “I have viewed my incarceration as a concrete measure in the understanding of what I want to do, and what I do not want to do. I do not want anymore life of crime; I want to commit myself to good behavior.”
Authorities released Lee from state prison in January 2001 for good behavior.
But by Sept. 26 it appeared Lee already had failed to live up to his claims and police arrested him for simple battery of his wife. Though she later dropped charges, this arrest came just two days after police found the first serial killer victim, Gina Wilson Green, strangled in her Stanford Avenue home.
A St. Francisville, La., woman, who used to work at a truck stop where Lee often visited, also said she could characterize Lee as charming.
“He was nice, always calm and very friendly,” said the woman, who asked The Reveille not to reveal her name for her own safety. “He’d come to use the phone and would ask how I’m doing. But he never was a man of too many words.”
It was that same charming behavior description St. Martin officials released, combined with the composite image she recognized as Lee, that convinced the woman to report Lee to the tip line.
In addition, Lee’s criminal records pulled from the West Feliciana courthouse show the 34-year-old, medium build cement truck driver has many of the characteristics listed in the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit’s serial killer profile.
The profile, which the task force released last December, described the offender as a man between the ages of 25 and 35 who weighs at least 155 pounds and has a job requiring physical strength.
By reviewing crime scene details, FBI behavior analysts concluded the offender probably had a history of following women, violence and anger, impulsive acts and familiarity with the area.
“There is so much that is put in to [behavioral analysis profiles],” said Special Agent Sheila Thorn from the New Orleans FBI field office. “It is a very reliable investigative tool that law enforcement has used over the years.”
The FBI profile stated that because of the nature of the serial killer attacks, the offender portrays a very unique type of violence.
“It is an unprovoked violence,” the profile said. “This tendency to act out aggressively toward someone, without any apparent reason, has been witnessed by others who live or work with him. He has likely been involved in any or all of the following: domestic abuse, workplace violence, random assultive behavior, threatening behavior, etc. People who know this offender may be intimidated by him because of his erratic spontaneous tempter.”
Lee’s arrests for beating his girlfriend in 2000 and his wife in 2001 coincide with the profile. He acted impulsively when he tried to resist arrest and run over a sheriff’s deputy.
Similarly, the profile described the serial killer as “an ‘impulsive’ individual. When determined to do something, he disregards the consequences of his acts. However, his impulsivity should not be confused with lack of planning. This impulsivity has likely brought him to the attention of law enforcement in the past, even if for seemingly minor offenses, including trespassing, breaking and entering and peeping.”
Lee’s records indicate he was arrested and pleaded guilty to burglary in St. Francisville in 1992 and to stalking and peeping on a St. Francisville woman in 1999.
He was arrested on the same two charges numerous other times in other parishes including the 1993 theft from an Independence, La., man, a peeping Tom incident and a separate burglary charge in Lake Charles in 1995 and a 1997 peeping Tom suspicion in Zachary, La.
Few of Lee’s known actions conflict with the FBI profile.
In one point, the profile stated the serial killer “wants to be seen as someone who is attractive and appealing to women. However, his level of sophistication in interacting with women, especially women who are above him in the social strata, is low. Any contact he has had with women he has found attractive would be described by these women as ‘awkward.'”
But, both the St. Francisville woman and the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office, which suspects Lee as a Breaux Bridge woman’s attacker, classified him as a charming and smooth talking man, not an “awkward” one.
Thorn said though she is not a profiler and cannot testify to the exact reliability of the FBI Behavior Analysis Unit’s profiles, they are compiled by highly trained professionals who use things like police reports, numerous interviews, crime scene photographs and medical reports to analyze an offender’s behavior patterns.
Public Defender Mike Mitchell, Lee’s defense attorney, did not return phone calls before press time.