Judge allows insanity defense in Chesapeake trial

CHESAPEAKE

A rare form of an insanity defense can be used in the trial of a man accused of killing his landlady-girlfriend, a judge decided Thursday.

Eric Spencer Baugher is claiming the shooting death of Karen Kittell last year was an accident but also that he suffered from "settled insanity," the legal name for a form brought on by years of alcohol and drug abuse, which prevented him from knowing what he was doing. It is not known whether the defense has ever succeeded in Virginia.

Circuit Judge John Brown allowed Deputy Public Defender A. Robinson Winn to present the defense in what's expected to be a week-long trial after hearing a psychologist testify.

"He's permanently damaged," the psychologist, Earle Williams II, said.

Permanence is one requirement of the defense. Further testing would be needed to determine Baugher's specific illness, which Williams linked to 15 years of near-daily drunkenness plus abuse of pills. Williams said he believed it to be a form of paranoid delusional disorder, based on his evaluation, tests and interviews with family members.

Baugher, 36, is accused of shooting Kittell, 46, in the back of the head in a bathroom of her Thyme Trail home in Greenbrier on Jan. 24. He had been renting a room from her.

In previewing their evidence for a jury, both sides described the two as being in a sometimes-tumultuous relationship that included drinking and, that fateful day, watching pro football playoff games.

The sides differ after that. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mara Kane said witnesses would tell about an argument, Baugher leaving, threatening Kittell to an acquaintance, returning and pressing a handgun to the back of Kittell's head and firing.

"I'm going to go psycho on her," Kane said a witness will quote Baugher.

In contrast, Winn said Baugher and Kittell, as part of a "wild" relationship, had sometimes used her gun in sex play. That night in the bathroom, Kittell placed the gun against her own head, Baugher tried to wrestle the weapon away and it fired, killing her, Winn said. Several crime-scene experts have been called to testify to help jurors sort out the stories.

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-5221, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com