Man who decapitated mom thought she was the devil

[matcom]

<snip>

As Kathryn Sneider's son beat her to death in January 2003, she cried out to him that she was his mother.

Karl Sneider didn't see it that way, his attorney said during the first day of his murder trial Monday.

"He knew she was the devil ... and he knew he had to kill the devil," said Barry Lloyd, an assistant public defender. "Karl described it as a battle of good and evil."

No one is disputing that Sneider beat, stabbed then decapitated his mother in one of the most grisly crimes in Palatine. But Lloyd argued Monday that Sneider, diagnosed after the killing as a paranoid schizophrenic, was insane when he did it.

If Sneider is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he could be sent to a state mental hospital instead of prison. That verdict would mean he was not aware that killing his mother was a crime.

Sneider, 28, chose a bench trial before Cook County Circuit Court Judge John Scotillo rather than a jury. The trial continues today.

http://www.dailyherald.com/search/main_story.asp?intid=3819550

[buycitgo]

1. was reading paper at dinner last night, and saw that

didn't read past the part where he put her head on the front porch!

that's the town next to me

same place where they had that Brown's Chicken mass murder a few years back

[BigMcLargehuge]

2. schizophrenia is a very scary disease

if it isn't diagnosed and treated properly. Sort of validates the whole idea that perception precedes reality.