A man convicted of raping and killing a 4-year-old Moss Bluff girl in November 2001 functions at a normal level in his daily routines, jailers who interact with him testified Tuesday in state district court.

Attorneys for death row inmate Jason Manuel Reeves, 40, of Ragley, have said he is intellectually disabled and shouldn’t be put to death for killing Mary Jean Thigpen. Reeves was convicted in 2004 of first-degree murder.

In addition to the jailers at the Calcasieu Correctional Center, Judge Mike Canaday also heard Tuesday from investigators who first interviewed Reeves in 2001 and from one of Reeves’ grade-school principals.

Hearings on the matter are expected to continue through the week. Reeves has reportedly scored between 74 and 85 on IQ tests — both above 70, the cutoff for intellectual disability. The Supreme Court, though, has ruled that 70 is a guideline, not a hard and fast number.

None of the detectives or officers are experts in mental health, but all said they had dealt with mentally handicapped people throughout their careers and that Reeves exhibited no traits common to the intellectual disabled.

Three investigators who questioned Reeves in the days after Thigpen’s death took the stand Tuesday: Mike Byrne, head of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office investigations divisions; Sheriff’s Office Lt. Liz Zaunbrecher; and Randy Benevage, a former Sheriff’s Office detective. All said Reeves was cooperative and appeared to understand the conversation and the questions asked of him.

Reeves had previously worked for an insulation company and on a tugboat, Zaunbrecher said.

At one point, Reeves said he had been drinking a Coke, then later corrected himself to say he’d been drinking Mountain Dew, Byrne said.

When Reeves was asked if Thigpen had been wearing purple pajamas, Reeves said she was actually wearing purple sweatpants, Zaunbrecher said.

That Reeves took Thigpen to a remote graveyard three miles from where he abducted her to commit the crime “indicates to me that he thought it out,” Zaunbrecher said. “He put thought into where he was bringing her.”

Additionally, Reeves described how he kept wood and a tarp in his car so that he could prop the car up and have something to lay on when it broke down, Benevage said.

“He described to you a plan?” prosecutor Hugo Holland asked.

“Yes, that’s what he described to me,” Benevage said.

Reeves did not answer some questions in the interest of “self-preservation,” Zaunbrecher said.

Jail guards Cheyenne Ferguson, Alexander Vincent and Louis Boling all said that in their interactions with Reeves, he is able to take care of his cell and his personal hygiene and make phone calls using a PIN.

Reeves is able to talk football with the guards, listening to games on his radio, Boling said. Vincent and Boling both said that in discussions about football, Reeves showed a knowledge of the game. In addition, he was able to construct an antenna to listen to games on a radio, Boling said.

As a student at J.I. Watson, Reeves was often in trouble, but was never treated as a special education student, Charles Nichols, one of the principals at the school, said under questioning from Kathy Kelly, with the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana.

Reeves received poor marks in school early on, according to court testimony Monday. Failing grades do not necessarily mean that a child is intellectually disabled, Nichols said under questioning from prosecutor Carla Sigler.

Dustan Abshire, an investigator with the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office, said that in jail phone calls Reeves asked his mother to check on the side effects of Zyprexa, spelling the drug’s name three times.

Reeves also discussed money with his mother, as well as her eye surgery and her funeral policy.

Jason Reeves was convicted of raping and killing 4-year-old Mary Jean Thigpen. (American Press Archives)