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Non-Jury Trial Opens For Gulph Mills Man Charged With Murdering His Family

By Brad Segall

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- Trial has started in Montgomery County, Pa., for a 27-year-old man accused of using a samurai sword to murder his parents and twin brother inside their Gulph Mills home more than three years ago.

The trial is being heard by Judge Gary Silow after Joseph McAndrew Jr. waived his right to a jury trial.  In exchange for that, prosecutors took the death penalty off the table.

Prosecutor Kevin Steele is looking for a conviction on three counts of first-degree murder, telling the judge that McAndrew knew what he was doing and knew it was wrong.  Testimony, he says, will show that his actions after the murders indicated he had intended to murder his family.

But defense attorney Paul Bauer says three experts will testify that McAndrew meets the definition of insanity, that months before the murders he stopped taking his medications, and five years before the crime was diagnosed with schizophrenia and other disorders.   The defense is asking the judge to find McAndrew not guilty by reason of insanity.

 

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