A psychiatrist testified that a man knew what he was doing when he killed his parents and twin brother but was so delusional that he didn't know it was wrong.
Joseph McAndrew Jr., 27, is charged with first- and third-degree murder in the March 2011 slayings of 70-year-old Joseph C. McAndrew, 64-year-old Susan McAndrew, and twin brother James McAndrew in Gulph Mills.
Prosecutors argue that Joseph McAndrew knew what he was doing when he stabbed the victims with a sword -- and knew it was wrong. Defense attorney Paul Bauer wants a judge to find his client not guilty by reason of insanity, saying his client had stopped taking medication months before the murders.
According to testimony, McAndrew was capable of daily activities such as driving a car or buying groceries but had grown increasingly delusional.
Dr. Timothy Michaels, a forensic psychiatrist testifying for the defense, said Monday that McAndrew told him he would see words in the sky and believed a psychic was communicating with him through an owl and a crow.
Under cross-examination, Michaels said some of the defendant's actions could indicate he knew that what he did was wrong, but they could also indicate the opposite -- for example, washing blood from his hands and face but leaving it on the clothes he was wearing, which police described as "saturated."
The defense also called a man who said he was a close friend of McAndrew during high school and for a few years afterward. Michael Tamney said McAndrew had stopped taking his medication in the months before the killings and believed reptile-humans were controlling the government and were out to get him.
Judge Gary Silow is presiding over the bench trial.
