TOUGH ENOUGH : Brutal Murder of Mother Overcome by NFL Hopeful

Jerry Leggett, the New Orleans Saints’ ninth-round draft choice from Cal State Fullerton, cannot forget the details of Aug. 26, 1977, no matter how hard he tries.

But then, neither can the community of Meridian, Miss.

Eleven years ago, the day after Leggett’s 12th birthday, his mother, Ruth, was hacked to death and his younger brother and sister were so badly beaten that they have never been the same, family members and police say. The murder conviction of Haney Warren was upheld in the Mississippi Supreme Court.

“Every morning I wake up crying in my heart, but I have to go on with my daily routine,” Leggett told the Associated Press this week at the Saints’ training camp in LaCrosse, Wis.

When arriving at his aunt’s home that day, Leggett was told of the tragedy that had unfolded in the early morning hours. He was at his grandmother’s the night of the attack.

Larry Covert, a Meridian Police Department detective who arrested the suspect that night, said Ruth Leggett and two children entered their dark house and were attacked. According to Covert, as Warren was beating Ruth Leggett, her children tried to pull him off.

“He had a hatchet in his hand and would swing down and hit the kids,” Covert said.

Leggett’s brother and sister were seriously injured during the attack. “My sister stayed in a coma for three months,” Jerry Leggett said. “My baby brother stayed in a coma for 2 1/2 months.”

As the oldest child, he felt responsible for his seven siblings, said his wife, Sandra, who is living in Royal Oak, Miss., with the couple’s two children and Jackie Leggett, the sister injured in the attack. “I was a daddy at 12 years old,” Leggett said. “I was going to school, working and helping take care of my brothers and sisters.”

His brother still requires institutional care.

Of Jackie, Leggett said: “She’s 16 years old, but she has the mind of a 6-year-old.

“When my mother died, my family just scattered. They spread us around like a bunch of puppies.”

Leggett, a second cousin of former Ram Charles White, moved in permanently with his aunt, Gloria Leggett. “After we told Jerry what happened, he wanted to go out and fight someone,” Gloria Leggett said from Meridian. “He just wanted to jump on the world. Our family had a lot of changes after that. We all think about it a lot.”

Sandra Leggett, who met her future husband only a year after the attack, said: “He doesn’t show his emotions, he is real strong. But it still does bother him what happened.”

Leggett become a football star at Meridian High School, then went to Mississippi State for two seasons before transferring to Fullerton, where he led the Titans in tackles.

Fullerton’s coach, Gene Murphy, said he knew of Leggett’s background when recruiting him, but was not concerned. Murphy said the situation has strengthened Leggett’s character.

His perseverance is being tested in the NFL. The Saints have moved Leggett, 6-feet-4, 276 pounds, to defensive tackle.

He has been slowed by an injured hip, and the fact he came to camp in less than peak condition.

Leggett said he knows how difficult it will be to make the team, but doesn’t think about quitting.

“If I was a quitter, I would have quit when he killed my mama,” he said. “A lot of people would be using that as an excuse. There are bums on the street saying, ‘I never had no daddy.’

“Well, I never knew my daddy, and my mother was killed, and I’m not looking for an excuse.”

Instead, he looks to the Leggett clan left--some 15 in Meridian--and sees a reason to believe.