Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Defense begins in Montgomery trial

|
|
 
  
Published: Oct. 13, 2007 at 12:10 AM

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.

Topics: John Patterson
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Syrian protests continue
View Caption
fark
Survey finds that men are quick to fall in love, roll over and fall asleep
Nerdiest sport ever: Combat juggling
Photoshop this topless athlete
Man rejects girlfriend's noodles, says toodles by leaving her in poodle of blood. Oodles of boodle...
Mormons tried to posthumously baptize Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel but were...
School principals should probably have background checks processed on them before they are hired...or...