JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee woman has been found not guilty of murder in the shooting death of her father by reason of insanity.
Johnson City Press reports that district attorney general Tony Clark and assistant public defender Melanie Sellers agreed Sonya Babb's mental illness was so severe that she couldn't understand the wrongfulness of her actions at the time of the January 2016 shooting of Kenneth Younce. The prosecutor and public defender signed a memorandum of understanding presented to Judge Stacy Street on Monday.
Clark told Street that the state concurred in the insanity defense after receiving psychiatric evaluations ordered by both the state and the defense.
Street told Babb she would continue to be held for safekeeping, and ordered another mental evaluation to determine if commitment for further treatment was necessary.