Lawyer: Trauma drove woman to cut off husband’s penis

April 26 2013

SANTA ANA, California — The attorney for a Southern California woman charged with severing the penis of her estranged husband said she “had a break from reality” the night of the attack.

Orange County Deputy Public Defender Frank Bittar said during closing arguments Thursday that Catherine Kieu had been through a lifetime of trauma and abuse and snapped the night she drugged her husband, cut off his penis and threw it in the garbage disposal in 2011.

The jury is scheduled to begin deliberating Monday on charges of torture and aggravated mayhem that could get the 50-year-old Kieu life in prison.

Prosecutors said in their closing arguments that Kieu was driven by jealous anger, not trauma, and showed her intentions by her thorough planning before the attack.

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