A man committed to a psychiatric hospital for up to 60 years for killing his victim with an ax before eating his brain and one of his eyeballs has been granted conditional release.

The written decision was issued Friday by the Connecticut Psychiatric Security Review Board after a hearing earlier in the day where the board heard extensively from a team of psychiatric doctors and clinical professionals with the Whiting Forensic Hospital who have worked with Tyree Smith.

Smith did not attend the hearing in person at the advice of his attorney, citing the intense media attention the case received and safety concerns, and instead watched the proceedings virtually.

"The board previously determined that Mr. Smith has demonstrated long-term stability, remained engaged in all recommended treatments, and consistently followed his care plan," Vanessa Cardella, a spokesperson for the board, said in a statement. "His release will be conditional, ensuring that he remains under structured supervision and continues receiving the necessary mental health services.

"Before being considered for conditional release, individuals first go through a temporary leave process, where they remain under hospital supervision while gradually increasing their time in the community," Cardella said. "This phased approach ensures stability before conditional release, allowing individuals to build relationships with outpatient providers while maintaining high levels of oversight. Conditional release continues this supervision with strict conditions to prioritize both public safety and the individual's ongoing treatment. Rehabilitation, not punishment, is the goal for all individuals found not guilty by reason of insanity."

Smith in 2013 was committed to the hospital for up to 60 years when he was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect following a trial in Bridgeport Superior Court. The three-judge panel ruled that the state had proven its murder case but made a finding that Smith could not control his actions when he killed 43-year-old Angel Gonzalez. Gonzalez's decomposed body was found in an abandoned building on Brooks Street in Bridgeport on Jan. 20, 2012. He had suffered severe wounds to his face and head.

Three days later, Smith's cousin, Nicole Rabb, told police Smith arrived at her house in mid-December and said he had "to get blood on his hands," the arrest warrant affidavit, according to Courant archives. He was going to Beardsley Park and his former home on Brooks Street, the Courant reported. The next day he returned with blood on his pants and carrying an ax saying he wanted to take a bath.

Rabb said Smith told her he was sleeping on the second-floor porch of 216 Brooks St. when a man invited him to the third floor to get out of the cold, archives said. Smith said he then beat the man with the ax so severely that he was able to remove an eye from the man's head along with pieces of brain matter and a piece of his skull, the Courant reported.

According to previous Courant reports, Smith then went to Lakeview Cemetery, where he said "he ate the eyeball, which tasted like an oyster, and the brain matter," according to the warrant affidavit.

Following the ruling in 2013, Smith spent 10 years at the Whiting Forensic Hospital. In August 2023, he was granted temporary leave privileges by the psychiatric review board.

During the hearing Friday, Dr. Caren Teitelbaum, who specializes in forensic psychiatry, told the board Smith in November 2023 was granted his first overnight stay away from the hospital and that, by April 2024, he was spending seven days a week away from Whiting. She said he has spent the past nine months "full time" in the community at a facility with 24/7 supervision.

Teitelbaum said Smith has made remarkable progress in dealing with his diagnosed condition of schizophrenia, which she said has been "in remission" since he got on the correct medication. In the past seven years, she said he has not experienced any periods of psychosis, delusions, paranoia or desires to hurt anyone -- all factors she said led to the killing. She said he also reports no longer hearing voices and that he is relieved they have subsided.

Teitelbaum said Smith was also abusing substances at the time of Gonzalez's death and that he had struggled with alcohol, opioids and cannabis. She said he has shown a deep commitment to his sobriety and addressing his mental health needs, going above and beyond the recommended treatment.

"He has a lot of remorse about what has happened," Teitelbaum said.

Officials said the transition from the conditions Smith has been under for the past nine months and those of conditional release were not all that different. The release, however, would carry the distinction that he was formally discharged from the hospital, according to officials.

Talitha Frazier, Gonzalez's sister-in-law, spoke before the board and said she represented his entire family. Frazier said the family was unaware of the previous hearing when the restrictions against Smith were loosened, a decision she said they would have opposed had they known about it.

Frazier said she continually called Whiting Forensic Hospital for five years after Smith was committed there and was told by a secretary to stop calling, reassuring her that Smith was "not going anywhere." She said she finally let her guard down and stopped calling only to learn that Smith was no longer being held at the hospital when she opened social media one day and saw a news story about it.

According to Frazier, Gonzalez's family has extreme safety concerns and has pursued protective order measures against Smith. She said the family also believes the voices in Smith's head could be telling him to lie to doctors about their presence in order to earn his release.

"How do we really know he's not going to do this again?" Frazier asked.

Frazier said Gonzalez's family feels that there was no justice in committing Smith to the hospital for 60 years and allowing him to leave after 10.

"I don't want to see anything bad happen to this man, but I don't want anything bad to happen to another person either," she said.

Frazier asked that Smith be returned to Whiting where he would not be able to endanger others.