A Texas lady admitted to brutally beating and stabbing the grandmother who raised her to loss of life whereas having a courtroom meltdown and claims “voices” and believing her grandma was practising “witchcraft” drove her to homicide.
Tamera Legal guidelines, 28, was hysterical as she testified in her personal protection in a San Antonio courtroom Thursday for the 2020 homicide of Doris Novella, 70, inside her residence, in keeping with WOAI.
“Who does that?” Legal guidelines shouted by way of her tears on the stand. “She’s by no means executed something for me to wish to kill her for.”
Prosecutors allege Legal guidelines — whose lawyer argues she must be discovered not responsible by purpose of madness — choked, stabbed, and repeatedly struck Novella with a hammer, killing her.
“Do you bear in mind stabbing your grandmother?” prosecutors requested her.
“That is an excessive amount of,” Legal guidelines replied, holding again tears.
She was capable of pull herself collectively and mentioned she “used her palms” and beat her with a hammer.
“I believed the vitality was on me, so I used to be pondering to get it off, I needed to beat it out,” Legal guidelines advised prosecutors.
The disturbed lady then mentioned she stabbed her “within the throat” to lastly kill her grandmother.
When requested if she was in her “proper thoughts” through the homicide, Legal guidelines mentioned “no” and mentioned if she was, she would have by no means killed Novella.
“Do you know on the time what you had been doing was incorrect,” the prosecutor requested her.
“No,” she replied.
Legal guidelines shared that she was fighting meth habit and dealing as an escort main as much as the homicide. Round this time, she claims that “voices” had been telling her “individuals had been making an attempt” to kill her.
“I might hear voices in my head telling me that folks had been making an attempt to kill me,” she mentioned.
“I used to be like, I do know my grandma’s making an attempt to kill me. I used to be afraid that my grandma was going to do witchcraft on me.”
Legal guidelines additionally advised the courtroom her father was the one who advised her that Novella was practising “witchcraft” towards her.
She spoke together with her father twice on the telephone on the evening of the murders — with the primary name lasting over an hour and the second lasting 42 minutes, WOAI reported.
The disturbed 28-year-old claims her father advised her to kill her grandmother.
“I bear in mind telling him, ‘Are you f–king telling me to kill my grandma proper now,” Legal guidelines recalled asking her dad throughout one of many telephone calls. “And he was like, ‘Sure,’ as a result of he mentioned I used to be defending myself.”
“(He) advised me that if I didn’t kill my grandma, I used to be going to finish up chopped up and despatched to him in a field by Monday,” she advised the courtroom.
The accused killer mentioned her dad has a historical past of violence and was a convicted felon residing in California.
Whereas she advised the courtroom she “didn’t know” she was doing “one thing incorrect” through the homicide, prosecutors argued that Legal guidelines was conscious of what she was doing and tried cleansing up the crime and fled the scene, in keeping with KSAT.
Nevertheless, a psychiatrist testified earlier than Legal guidelines took the stand on Thursday and mentioned she suffered from psychological well being points and would go into psychosis and have hallucinations.
Legal guidelines waived her proper to a jury trial and opted for a bench trial, which means the choose, Catherine Torres Stahl, will resolve the end result.
Stahl may even resolve whether or not to just accept her madness protection.
Legal guidelines faces as much as life in jail if discovered convicted of murdering Novella.
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