KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct, 13, 2007
Insanity Defense In Stolen Fetus Case
Lawyers Say Woman Who Killed A Friend And Cut The Baby From Her Womb Is Mentally Ill
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Lisa Montgomery (left) and the woman she is accused of killing, Bobbie Jo Stinnett (right). Montgomery is on trial for cutting a baby from the womb of an acquaintance on Dec. 16, 2004. (AP/Nodaway-Holt High School)
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Montgomery, 39, is accused of strangling Stinnett, 23, on Dec. 16, 2004 and using a kitchen knife to cut the baby from her womb.
The baby, Victoria Jo Stinnett, survived and is now almost 3 years old.
Judy Shaughnessy, Montgomery's mother, testified Friday she found then-husband Jack Kleiner having sex with Montgomery in 1984, when Montgomery would have been about 16. She testified as attorneys began building Montgomery's insanity defense.
Lisa Montgomery has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping resulting in the death of Bobbie Joe Stinnett, 23. Her defense team admits she killed Stinnett and took the baby but says it will show Montgomery suffered from mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by abuse from her stepfather when she was a teenager.
Several of Montgomery's siblings and step-siblings testified that Montgomery's stepfather abused all of them. Shaughnessy testified about the sexual abuse but acknowledged she never filed a formal police complaint, in part because she said Kleiner had threatened her and the children.
Some of Montgomery's siblings and step-siblings described Kleiner as an alcoholic who often beat them, especially the girls, and said Shaughnessy did nothing to protect her daughters until she divorced him in 1985.
Shaughnessy's daughter, Patty Baldwin, testified that Kleiner would take her into a bathroom, make her pull down her pants and beat her with a belt. Becky Perkey, Montgomery's stepsister, said Kleiner used his fist on her and hit her with a telephone receiver. Teddy Kleiner said his father used a belt on all the children.
Kleiner, of Manhattan, Kan., was too ill to travel to Kansas City. In videotaped testimony, he denied having sex with Montgomery and said he could not remember ever physically abusing his daughters.
Shown a transcript of the divorce proceedings, during which he had admitted some physical abuse, Kleiner said he didn't have a good memory.
David Kidwell, Shaughnessy's nephew, testified that she had told him she believed Montgomery "had brought (the abuse) on herself, that she enticed him."
Pat Brunton, a former social worker for the state of Kansas who was involved in a custody dispute involving one of Shaughnessy's grandsons, also said Shaughnessy told her that Montgomery seduced Kleiner. She called Shaughnessy a manipulative, dishonest woman who pitted her children against each other so that she could be the center of attention.
Shaughnessy testified that her daughter faked several pregnancies since undergoing a tubal ligation after the birth of her fourth child in 1990.
When a man congratulated Shaughnessy on Dec. 17, 2004, for becoming a grandmother again, and said Montgomery had been showing off a new baby in her hometown of Melvern, Kan., Shaughnessy said her first reaction was "she either bought it or stole it."
Montgomery was arrested that evening, a day after Stinnett's killing, and the baby girl was returned to her father.
Shaughnessy cried on the witness stand, saying it upset her because she knew what it was like to be a mother.
"For Lisa to do something like that ... that was Bobbie Jo's first baby, Lisa just had no right to do that," she said.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Montgomery is convicted.
Besides convicting or acquitting her, jurors could find Montgomery not guilty by reason of insanity. If that is the verdict, she would undergo a mental evaluation and a judge would decide if she will be released or committed to a mental institution.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 51 CommentsAs women they have to be aware of it if they are not in hospital..True they will do just about anything to keep a man if it means they throw their kids on the state. We have to stop giving girl child baby like dollies as it sends a message they will want a real baby and some are not fit to bear them. We as a people do we fix them so no babies as this woman was and we don''t know why she wanted a child so bad,it is over a man or money..If for health reasons a woman must have an bortion that is her business but than be fixed..
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS AND QUIT BLAMING EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ELSE AROUND YOU!!!
I pray the jury doesn''t have to deliberate long before coming back with a Guilty, Gas Her decision.
MOST women who stay with men they KNOW are sexually abusing their kids--do so out of fear of being alone and losin the financial support. It has little to nothing to do with fearing physical retaliation from the man and usually has more to do with the woman being afraid of making it on her on with kids. Such a woman offers her kids up as sacrifice in order to keep her home life.
Either the woman turns a blind eye and refuses to acknowledge, accept or believe the rapes are occurring OR she blames the kids and believes they encouraged or seduced the man. Most find it almost impossible to accept that THEY failed to protect their kids and that they share heavily in the blame --especially when the abuse is repeated over and over again.
The story now, of the fear--is a cover for allowing it to continue and doing nothing. The real question is--in 1985 did she divorce him or did he just get rid of her? What was the breaking point? It certainly was not seeing her daughter being raped/fvcked by her husband.
Posted by MichelleM99 at 10:00 PM : Oct 13, 2007
You are absolutely right, Michelle. When people kill on purpose they lose their rights to society or any of the consideration that society gives people. One of those rights it to keep on living. It should be understood by all those who deliberately seek to kill others (as opposed to accidents that kill) if you seek to destroy life--then you should realize you automatically give up your claim to keep living too.
That is only right. The fact that some people are too scared or squeamish about the death penalty and that it takes too long, makes it easy for many people to kill with impunity. If people knew death was immediate, they might reconsider. One thing is for sure--dead people never go back out and hurt anyone else.
Then again, why do we think crazy people should be excused? The very fact that they are crazy should be grounds for deciding they should not be a part of society.
Why is it that we feel crazy people who kill could get sympathy? I have never understood this.When I was a kid, I asked my mom this very question. (the innocent by reason of insanity defense was really going strong then) my argument was: If the murderer is really crazy, then he will be so far removed from reality, that he will not know we killed him--so why do we hesitate? After all, if the killer is not in his right mind, he''ll never know what hit him/her. LOL
I can''t believe such a hideous act of killing and carving up somebody for their baby was humanly possible. The bible says that those who reject God ,will ultimately sink to the lowest forms of life
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Exactly! And the person who needs to pay for it needs to be the person who committed it: Lisa Montgomery. She alone is the responsible party, regardless of her mother''s LACK of mothering...regardless of the abuse. It''s her crime, she owns it, she should pay for it.
...fine let the daughter go and lock up the mother for allowing this all to happen.
somebody needs to pay for this murder
This woman knew FULL WELL what she was doing, when she was doing it and I''m sorry but I refuse to accept the EXCUSE that she did it because her step-father''s treatment of her and her siblings over 20 years ago MADE her do it. That''s just assinine. Nobody can reach into your brain and pull some strings to make you do something...you alone are responsible for what you do. She needs to admit what she did, admit that she screwed up and accept the consequences for her actions. The End.
Statistics say that most women have been sexually abused at some point in their life (I was). The majority of us don''t, however, some 20 years later, feel that that abuse gives us the right to go out and cut a baby from her mother''s womb while claiming something that happened over 20 years ago drove us to that point. It''s ridiculous.
When you''re a child, sometimes very bad things happen to you. It happens, it sucks, but you DON''T let it make you who you end up being. The thing many people nowadays tend to forget is that we all have a CHOICE in what we do and how we live our lives. We alone are responsible for our actions and if we screw up, rather than blaming it on an incident that happened 20 yrs ago, we should be accountable and ADMIT that we screwed up and take the CONSEQUENCES for our actions.
To be continued...
SOOOOO...IF IT WAS HER 2ND CHILD ITS OK THEN??? SOUNDS LIKE MOMMY''S A COOKOO CLOCK TOO!!!
DEATH BY LETHAL INJECTION....AND THATS TOO NICE
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