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Judge blocks expert's testimony in Iowa murder trial
A judge has blocked jurors from hearing testimony from a psychologist who says a woman charged with murdering a 20-year-old Iowa man has symptoms consistent with being a home invasion victim.
Psychologist David Grove, the first witness for Tracey Richter's defense, was preparing to testify Wednesday about his opinion when Judge Kurt Wilke cleared jurors to hear arguments about the testimony.
Grove says he couldn't judge Richter's truthfulness about claims that Dustin Wehde and another man invaded her home before she shot him. But he says Richter suffered from stress symptoms consistent with a traumatic event such as violent crime based on her retelling of the story.
Wilke says the testimony would open questions about other stresses, such as Richter's convictions and divorces, and "we don't want to go there."
Tracey Richter, at left, consults with defense attorney Robert Powers Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 in Webster County District Court at the beginning of the day in her first-degree murder trial in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Richter, 45, has said she shot Dustin Wehde to protect herself and her children when he and another man broke into her home in Early, a farming town of 500 people in northwest Iowa. But prosecutors say Richter killed Wehde to keep him quiet about his role in a convoluted plot to frame her ex-husband. (AP Photo/Hans Madsen, Pool)
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