KANSAS CITY, United States (AFP) — A Missouri woman who was strangled by an acquaintance probably regained consciousness as the attacker sliced into her abdomen to steal her unborn baby, a pathologist testified Friday.
Bobbie Jo Stinnett likely blacked out after being choked from behind with a rope but began struggling again when her attacker loosened the rope to begin cutting into her belly, said Mary Case, the chief medical examiner for St. Louis County, Missouri.
"There is evidence that she regained consciousness while the incision was made in her abdomen," Case testified.
Lisa Montgomery, 39, is accused of strangling Stinnett and then using a kitchen knife to carve the baby from her womb.
Montgomery, who had been faking a pregnancy, then tried to pass the baby off as her own.
The baby, Victoria Jo, was found safe a day later at Montgomery's home on December 17, 2004.
Now nearly three years later, she is doing fine but does not know what really happened to her mother, her father testified Thursday.
Montgomery's lawyers have conceded that she killed Stinnett but are arguing that she is so mentally unbalanced that she did not understand that it was wrong.
They said she suffered from pseudocyesis, a false belief of being pregnant and "brutal and sadistic" treatment as a child at the hands of a stepfather.
Prosecutors contend that Montgomery planned the crime for weeks or even months and researched how to perform a Caesarean section on the Internet.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if she is found guilty.
The medical examiner said blood from the wound on Stinnett's abdomen had seeped up between her toes and covered the tops of her feet.
"This indicates she stepped in blood on the floor," Case testified. "To step in blood she would have to be conscious."
Case also identified numerous defensive wounds on Stinnett's hands and forearms which indicated she tried to fight off her assailant.
Montgomery met the Stinnetts at a rat terrier show in Kansas in April 2004 and struck up a casual acquaintance over the Internet.
Jurors heard testimony from the man who unwittingly put Montgomery on the path to Stinnett's home.
Jason Dawson, who ran several websites devoted to rat terriers, testified that he connected a woman who called herself Darlene Fischer with Stinnett in order to buy a puppy for her children.
Stinnett then gave the woman, whom investigators later determined was really Montgomery, directions to her home.
Dawson, who no longer breeds dogs because of the attack, said he felt betrayed and sickened when he learned that Stinnett had been killed.
"She was an incredible young lady," Dawson said. "It yanked everything in my heart right out. It was shocking and wrong."
Dawson said he had come to consider Montgomery dishonest, but testified that Stinnett came to Montgomery's defense when he removed a listing for Montgomery's kennel from one of his web sites.
"Bobbie was a sweet spirit," Dawson said. "She was kind and gave Lisa the benefit of the doubt."
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