PEORIA, Ill. (WAND) – Kidnapping and murder suspect Brendt Christensen’s withdrawal of a mental health defense was approved in federal court Tuesday.
According to The News-Gazette, U.S. District Judge James Shadid decided to allow the defense team to withdraw that plan of defense in Peoria. His team was originally planning to argue Christensen had a mental illness in order to avoid the death penalty, should he be found guilty in the death of Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang.
Christensen’s team didn’t give a reason for withdrawing the mental health defense. Earlier in April, Shadid decided against allowing the defense team to create restrictions on the government’s mental health experts during examinations of the suspect. One of those restrictions would have stopped them from asking about the facts of the crimes Christensen is accused of committing. Those examinations, which were scheduled for Monday, are now canceled.
Shadid told Christensen in court Tuesday that future attempts to use a mental health defense might be denied and asked if he was satisfied with the decision. The suspect said “yes” in response.
Christensen’s trial is scheduled for June. It was going to start in April originally, but was pushed back when Christensen’s lawyers couldn’t find a mental health expert to testify at that time.
Shadid told the newspaper that, if Christensen is found guilty or pleads guilty, the sentencing phase of the trial could be shorter with he mental health defense no longer in play.
