Defense Attorneys Try to Keep Montco Child Killer From Death Sentence
By Brad Segall
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- The defense has begun laying out its case as it tries to keep the man convicted of killing a ten-month-old baby and her grandmother in King of Prussia nearly two years ago off death row.
The defendant, Raghu Yandamuri, told the judge he doesn't want the hearing and will accept the death penalty.
A psychiatrist testified that Yandamuri was under psychiatric treatment in India as a teenager because of the trauma of losing his father, a police officer, at the age of 10 in a terrorist attack.
The psychiatrist also says the 28-year-old man has a gambling disorder.
Those are two mitigating factors which, he says, could potentially lead to a life sentence for Yandamuri, who killed infant Saanvi Venna's grandmother during what prosecutors say was a botched kidnapping. The girl was found dead later.
Defense attorney Henry Hilles says there were issues working against his client.
"This was an act that occurred that was terrible -- an unforgiveable act -- but it was not borne out of an evil person, that he's not the worst of the worst."
That's language, he says, the US Supreme Court has stated is what the death penalty should be reserved for.
Prosecutors will present their aggravating factors, and then it will be up to the jury to decide the weight of those factors and determine whether Yandamuri will be be sentenced to death or life behind bars.
