Mental Illness Will Be Defense in Slaying of Pregnant Woman

Mar 31, 10:58 AM

Current Headlines: By Steve Fry

By Steve Fry

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Lisa Montgomery, the Melvern woman charged with strangling a pregnant northwest Missouri woman and cutting an infant from her abdomen, will rely on defenses related to mental disease or defect during her trial, according to a court filing by a defense attorney Friday.

Prosecutors contend that on Dec. 16, 2004, Montgomery, now 39, of Melvern, drove to the Skidmore, Mo., home of Bobbi Jo Stinnett, 23, where she strangled Stinnett, cut out the child and kidnapped the infant.

In a one-sentence notice filed with the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Missouri, defense attorney Frederick A. Duchardt Jr. said expert testimony would support the mental disease or defect defense.

Friday was the deadline for Montgomery's defense team to notify the court whether it would rely on the mental disease defense.

That notice was the latest in a flurry of court filings in the last week.

n Earlier this week, Duchardt filed a motion questioning whether the baby was legally a person before her mother was killed.

n Federal prosecutors filed a motion on March 23 saying they wanted jurors to hear that Lisa Montgomery lied in Osage County District Court during an April 2004 hearing when she testified she was pregnant in 2003. Prosecutors say that statement is "intrinsic" to the murder of Stinnett and establishes Montgomery's motive to kill Stinnett.

Montgomery is charged with kidnapping the infant, Victoria Jo Stinnett, resulting in the death of her mother, Bobbi Jo Stinnett. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Montgomery if convicted.

Montgomery's trial is to start April 30 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo.

Steve Fry can be reached

at (785) 295-1206

or steve.fry@cjonline com.

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