CLEARWATER, Fla. — The murder trial of John Jonchuck, now in its fourth week, has seen more than 30 different witnesses.
Some have testified for the prosecution's argument that Jonchuck is guilty of murder after dropping his 5-year-old daughter off a St. Petersburg bridge in 2015. Other witnesses have testified for his defense team, which claims Jonchuck was insane when his daughter, Phoebe, was killed that early morning in January.
Controversial testimony caused a big hold up Wednesday. The court spent the first half of the day arguing over whether the jury can hear testimony from a psychiatrist who believes Jonchuck is faking mental illness.
Up until this point, the jury had heard from several witnesses who believe Jonchuck is mentally deranged and out of touch with the real world. However, on Wednesday, the prosecution put a psychiatrist on the stand who thinks Jonchuck has a severe anti-social personality disorder but is not insane.
Dr.Emily Lazarou told the jury Jonchuck’s apparent delusions weren’t legitimate.
“You don’t go from God to Archangel to a devil to a demon to the Pope to this to that in a very short period of time like that. Even in a long period of time, psychotic systems don’t work like that,” Lazarou said on the stand.
In December, court documents revealed conversations between Lazarou and Jonchuck from two different dates. In those interviews, Jonchuck said "voices" told him if "Phoebe didn't die, everybody was going to go to hell."
Lazarou's testimony followed another controversial witness – Dr. Peter Bursten. On Tuesday, Bursten poked holes in the defense's insanity argument. Bursten said in court he believes Jonchuck has severe mental illness and moments of delusion, but he also thinks Jonchuck was at least somewhat in touch with reality when he dropped Phoebe off the bridge.
Bursten told the jury about a checklist used to diagnose psychopaths. He gave Jonchuck high marks on the checklist finding him to have personality traits such as superficial charm, manipulative and a lack of remorse.
Tuesday and Wednesday's testimony is problematic for the defense which is trying to prove Jonchuck was delusional when he killed his daughter. The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Thursday.
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