Woman pleads not guilty by reason of insanity to stabbing her father-in-law

A former Major League Baseball player used a baseball bat to fend off his daughter-in-law as she repeatedly stabbed him with a pair of scissors in his Columbus home Oct. 27, 2010, the man told a Superior Court judge Wednesday.

Tony Pierce, who pitched for the Athletics in Kansas City and Oakland in the late 1960s, also told Judge John Allen his daughter-in-law, Laura K. Pierce, once called him "God" for two days and on one occasion crawled into bed with him.

Facing one to 20 years in prison for aggravated assault, she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and will go to a mental health facility for a 30-day evaluation.

Her plea means Pierce could be held there indefinitely.

"It could be 30 days or 30 years," said Assistant District Attorney Doug Breault.

Laura Pierce, 32, admitted stabbing her father-in-law, who in court Wednesday detailed the bizarre confrontation, saying she arrived at his home unannounced, left her purse by the door and put his 130-pound Rottweiler in the bathroom before assaulting him as he sat on his couch.

"I thought something was wrong with her," he said. "It's like a fairy tale. She's jabbing at me, saying, 'I have to die, you've got to die.' I saw it in her eyes. She meant it, too."

She stabbed him several times in the chest as they struggled. Eventually he was able to grab the scissors in one hand and her head in another. Scanning the room for some way to ward her off, he saw a baseball bat.

He'd decided by then that either he or his daughter-in-law had to die, he said. As he reached for the bat, she stabbed him in the back.

He hit her with half a swing of the bat.

"I was trying to hit her in the head," he said. "I mean, this was for real. The whole thing is just hard to believe."

She went out to his front yard, screaming that she was bipolar and schizophrenic. She was still there when police arrived.

The prosecutor said she initially entered a special plea of insanity, but a jury earlier this month found she was competent to stand trial.

Had the case gone to trial, jurors would have had four verdict options: guilty, guilty but mentally ill, not guilty by reason of insanity or not guilty.

A guilty or guilty but mentally ill verdict would have sent her to prison, not a mental health facility, Breault said.

This story was originally published July 18, 2012 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Woman pleads not guilty by reason of insanity to stabbing her father-in-law."