Winter Haven, Florida - For the very first time, we're hearing from Brian Alexander, the defense attorney for 31-year-old Jeremy Manieri of Waveland, Mississippi.
Manieri was picked up by Polk County SWAT team members two weeks ago after they surrounded his hotel room in Clermont. He was wanted by Waveland police for the murder of 70-year-old Father Edward Everitt.
Everitt was murdered at the Dominican Retreat House in Waveland where he was staying and where Manierie worked as a maintenance man.
Alexander says, "There's much more to this than y'all are aware of. I know that's why y'all are here and I'm not trying to taunt you with that. I'm sort of limited to what I can say."
While Polk County sheriff's detectives say Manieri confessed, his attorney says don't focus on that. Alexander says, "Admitting you did an action is one thing, whether or not you had proper motivation to do that is the real question."
Sheriff Grady Judd has said the suspect and victim knew each other for two weeks because Everitt was talking to Manieri about doing some type of construction work for him. Sheriff Judd says the two attended morning Mass together on Sunday and then went to lunch together.
Later that evening, though, they got into some type of disagreement and that's when the priest was shot twice. But Manierie's attorney says they hadn't known each other for long. He says Manieri didn't even know Everitt was a priest. He says his client isn't the monster he's being made out to be.
Alexander says, "It's going to be born out by the evidence that he did not do anything that just an average reasonable person would not do and when the facts start coming out and you see, he's going to be a much more sympathetic figure. Because, at this point, you've only heard law enforcement and they want to leak things that are not particularly flattering out of context often."
Manieri does have a record. He's a sex offender who was convicted for having sex with a child under the age of 12.
Sheriff Judd says Manieri not only shot the priest, but he says he robbed him and took his cash and his vehicle. Manieri is then accused of picking up his ex-wife and their kids, only to head straight to Disney.
The OnStar security system in the priest's vehicle helped lead detectives to him.
Brian Alexander's comments don't surprise Waveland Police Chief Jimmy Varnell, who says, "It's a heinous crime of killing a human being. I can't think of any reason anyone would be sympathetic for him."
Manieri's been extradited back to Waveland, Mississippi, where he's being held on $2 million bond. Even if he was able to post bond, he'd have to stay in jail because he was already on probation for failing to register as a sex offender.