Teen Accused Of Stabbing Mother To Death Pleads Not Guilty By Reason Of Insanity
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4)- A teenager accused of brutally stabbing her mother more than 150 times has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Isabella Guzman was charged with murder in the stabbing death of her mother on Aug. 28, 2013.
Court documents state Guzman's mother, Yun Mi Hoy, had been stabbed 79 times in the face, neck and torso on the upstairs floor of the home. Police discovered Hoy's body after responding to the home on an emergency call.
Guzman, now 19, ran from the scene and was captured by police the next afternoon.
Typically there would be another hearing to prove insanity but in this case the prosecution said the evidence is clear the suspect was mentally ill.
A doctor testified in court that Guzman is schizophrenic and had been suffering from some highly disturbing delusions for years.
Those delusions, attorneys believe, drove Guzman to stab her mother more than 150 times last summer.
Her stepfather was home at the time and found his wife lying in the bathroom and Guzman standing over her, holding a knife.
The doctor testified that Guzman didn't believe her mother was in fact her mother but instead a woman named Cecelia who she believed needed to be killed in order to save the world.
"We punish people who make decisions to do wrong when they knew better and they could have done something differently. And in this particular case I am convinced, based on the evidence that I've seen and the information that's been presented in court, that this woman did not know right from wrong and she could not have acted differently than she did, given the significant schizophrenia and paranoid delusions, audible, visual hallucinations that she was going through. I was convinced of it and I felt like in the interest of justice I had to take these steps," said George Brauchler, District Attorney, 18th Judicial District.
Guzman will be admitted into the state mental hospital. Brauchler said she will remain there until she is no longer a threat to the community or herself. That could be anywhere from two days to two weeks or she could be there for the remainder of her life.