Doctor disputes insanity defense

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A woman accused of cutting a baby from the womb of a pregnant teenager and killing her was not legally insane at the time, nor would her mental problems support a verdict of guilty but mentally ill, a prosecution psychiatrist testified Friday.

Dr. Bruce Wright testified Andrea Curry-Demus, 40, has an anti-social personality disorder and major depression with psychotic features. But that diagnosis does not mean she could not follow the law, he said.

“There’s no question in my mind, she could differentiate right from wrong,” Wright said.

Defense attorney Christopher Patarini argued that a judge should find Curry-Demus innocent by reason of insanity in the July 2008 death of Kia Johnson, 18, of McKeesport. Her baby survived and is living with relatives.

Curry-Demus opted to have Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning decide the case instead of a jury. Testimony concluded Friday, and Manning will give his verdict Jan 25.

Prosecutor Mark Tranquilli argued that despite her mental problems, Curry-Demus did form the specific intent to kill required for a first-degree-murder conviction.

Tranquilli called Wright to rebut testimony a defense psychiatrist gave a day earlier.

Dr. Barbara Ziv testified Curry-Demus has a delusional disorder that caused her to have a “break with reality” at the time of the killing. As such, she could not form the intent to kill.

Wright disagreed.

Curry-Demus had watched television shows about delivering babies, gave Johnson drugs to incapacitate her, bound her with duct tape and cut the baby out in the bathtub of Curry-Demus’ apartment, where cleanup would be easy, he said.

That showed premeditation, and what she did afterward demonstrated she knew what she did was wrong, he said.

Johnson’s body was found in plastic wrap, trash bags and more duct tape hidden behind the headboard in Curry-Demus’ bedroom in her apartment in Wilkinsburg, a community along Pittsburgh’s eastern border.

Curry-Demus met and befriended Johnson at the Allegheny County Jail, where Johnson was visiting her unborn son’s father and Curry-Demus was visiting her husband.