AUGUSTA — Leroy Smith III, accused of killing his father in May 2014, believed his father was putting rat poison in his food, so the son killed him in self-defense, a psychologist testified Thursday.

Peter Donnelly, a clinical psychologist, testified about his June 20 evaluation of Smith during a hearing about whether the younger Smith has become mentally competent to face a charge of murdering his father.

Smith has been diagnosed with delusional disorder.

A second psychologist, Ann LeBlanc, director of the State Forensic Service, which evaluates defendants for the court, testified at the Capital Judicial Center that Smith has had delusions about the poisoning by Leroy Smith Jr., 56, in the Gardiner apartment they shared.

A judge six months ago ordered involuntary medication for Leroy Smith III in an attempt to restore his mental status enough to enter a plea on a charge of murdering and dismembering his father.

Smith wore a short-sleeved black T-shirt in the courtroom with the saying “Fire with or against you – and so it burns.” He was shackled and brought into the courtroom by deputies with the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office. His head is shaved and he has a short dark beard and mustache.

He sat at a table in the courtroom behind his two defense attorneys, Pamela Ames and Scott Hess.

Justice Donald Marden has previously found that Smith was mentally incompetent to assist his attorneys in defending himself on the charge of intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder.

After a status conference in May, attorneys said that Smith was willingly taking the medication.

On Thursday, Marden said, “I compliment Mr. Smith for cooperating fully with the doctors and psychologists in that regard.”

On Wednesday, Ames said she anticipated a review of an order to involuntarily medicate the younger Smith. The order was issued six months ago over defense objections.

Ames said she anticipated either an extension or termination of the order.

“If this is a termination, I believe (Smith) will be scheduled for a competency hearing to determine if he is competent or may become competent in the near future,” Ames said.

She said the defense team has received progress reports from the state hospital on Smith’s condition.

The defense maintains Smith is not competent to enter a plea or stand trial on the charge.

Both psychologists testified that Smith has made progress in his thinking since the medication was started and that he could focus better on the criminal case and some possible pleas.

However, LeBlanc said Smith maintains he killed his father in self-defense because his father was poisoning the wheat grass the son ate and sprinkling his food with rat poison and that his lawyers won’t listen to him.

“He believes that he has no mental illness,” LeBlanc testified.

Police say Smith stabbed his father to death in the apartment they shared, dismembered the body and distributed body parts in a rural area of Richmond. At a hearing five days later, the younger Smith claimed to be a political prisoner.

In January 2015, Marden concluded that Smith was incompetent to face the charge.

The prosecutor had sought the involuntary medication order under a state law that went into effect in July 2015 that allows a judge to order that a defendant be medicated involuntarily to restore competence.

Smith has previously told the judge he wanted to fire his attorneys, saying they had failed to represent him properly. Smith also talked about an incident somehow involving the heavy metal band Slayer.

He said that at some point in 2011, “I had a gun held against my head and was sworn to keep secret about what I am. They refused investigating any persons responsible. The whole entire group Slayer was there. I was told then that what they did was too overboard.”