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Man wanted in connection to 1994 stabbing, mutilation of mother in custody in Leon County

Beaumont man Millet Harrison was found not guilty by reason of insanity and served time at Rusk State Hospital.

LEON COUNTY, Texas — Law enforcement in Leon County, Texas, confirmed to 12News Millet Harrison is in custody after an arrest warrant was issued on Tuesday. 

Millet Harrison, now 71 years old, was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Jefferson County jury after stabbing and dismembering his mother in 1994. He was then sent to Rusk State Hospital.  

His niece, Diane Guidry told 12News by phone on Tuesday he was taken into custody in Buffalo, Texas. Guidry says a family friend signed Harrison out of a facility where he was staying. 

She says he was never really missing and Harrison is expected to return to Rusk Wednesday morning.  

In a 2015 phone conversation with 12News, Harrison thanked Judge Larry Gist for Gist's decision to let Harrison out of the hospital after 20 years at the mental institution.

In a Tuesday afternoon phone call to Judge West's office, 12News was told the arrest warrant was issued for the original murder, but the court is looking to review Millet Harrison's medical conditions. 

A news release from the office says the warrant was issued for "Harrison to return to Rusk State Hospital for a review of his medication compliance and treatment plan."  

During a Beaumont City Council meeting in April 2015, Harrison's niece Diane Guidry defended her uncle.

"I know it's maybe hard to understand, but he deserves a chance," Guidry said.

Days before the meeting, Judge Gist ruled that there was no longer evidence preventing Harrison from getting supervised outpatient care as he looked to leave Rusk.

Activist Ricky Jason disagreed and urged city leaders to prevent his release. 

"This man is worse than the people in Africa cutting the people's heads off when they were babies," Jason said. "He did this to his only mother." 

In 2015, Guidry blamed the 1994 murder on Harrison's mental health and doctors.

Harrison was being treated for paranoid schizophrenia prior to the fatal stabbing.

Harrison's family says doctors took him off what they called a sleeping medication, causing him to hear voices in his head to kill his mother.   

"No one in this community has yet to question the doctor's that made that decision, that caused millet to kill my grandmother, his mother," Guidry said in 2015.

Doctor's testified that Harrison had been compliant with taking what they called his anti-psychotic medication.  

Harrison did not have a criminal background prior to the 1994 murder.

"Every morning, he wakes up and looks at the person who killed his best friend, Guidry said. "When he looks at his hands, he sees the hands that killed her." 

RELATED: Judge delays Millet Harrison's release from Rusk State Hospital

RELATED: Millet Harrison speaks exclusively to 12News following judge's ruling to release him after 20...

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