Defense begins in Montgomery trial

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 13 (UPI) -- The mother and sister of a woman accused of strangling an expectant mother in Missouri testified Friday that Lisa Montgomery was sexually molested as a teen.

The witnesses said Montgomery was raped by her stepfather when she was 14, The Kansas City Star reported. The stepfather denies the claim.

Montgomery is on trial in federal court. Prosecutors charge she drove from her home in Melvern, Kansas, to Skidmore, Mo., where she killed Bobbie Jo Stinnett and cut her baby from her womb to pass off as her own.

Defense lawyers have conceded that Montgomery committed the crime but say she was deranged. She could face the death penalty if she is convicted.

The defense began putting on witnesses to testify about Montgomery's childhood after prosecutors rested early Friday. The first witness was her biological father, John Patterson, who admitted being an alcoholic and said he abandoned her mother when Montgomery was 3 because she was continually unfaithful to him.