KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The day after a Missouri woman was killed and a baby cut from her womb, the woman accused of killing her was showing off a newborn as her own, several acquaintances testified Friday. Five women testified Friday that Lisa Montgomery and her husband, Kevin, seemed ecstatic about the new baby girl. The women said Montgomery showed no signs of trauma or being upset, and had answers to all their questions about the birth.
Also Friday, a medical examiner testified that she believed Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, was conscious and trying to defend herself when Montgomery used a kitchen knife to perform a crude Caesarean section on Dec. 16, 2004.
The baby, Victoria Jo Stinnett, who was one month shy of her due date, survived and lives with her father.
All but one of the women testified that they were skeptical when they heard that Montgomery was pregnant in 2004, partly because Montgomery had claimed to be pregnant twice before and did not have a baby. And they said she did not look pregnant, even a week before she was introducing her new baby.
One of the witnesses, Jennifer Sage, said she had heard on the morning of Dec. 17, 2004, that a woman had been killed in Skidmore and a baby stolen. When Montgomery said she had given birth in Topeka, Kan., Sage said she didn't hold the tiny baby because of her suspicions.
"It was very odd," she said. "It was just too weird for me."
Lisa Green, who believed Montgomery was pregnant, said Montgomery seemed in touch with reality and happy to be home when she called her the night of Dec. 16, 2004, and said she had given birth and was home with the baby.
Green, who worked with Montgomery at a convenience store, also said that Montgomery told her she had been raped by her stepfather as a teenager and that her mother blamed her for trying to take her husband away.
Montgomery, 39, has pleaded guilty by reason of insanity. Her attorneys said Thursday that they would argue that Montgomery suffered from mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by years of abuse in her dysfunctional family.
