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Last updated on Monday, June 9, 2014
(WEST LAFAYETTE) - An Indiana man’s decision to seek the insanity defense in the fatal shooting and stabbing of a Purdue University teaching assistant could create a challenging task for his attorney.
Cody Cousins is charged with murder in the Jan. 21 death of 21-year-old Andrew Boldt inside a Purdue classroom.
Cousins told Tippecanoe Superior Court Judge Thomas Busch last month that he was taking medication for treatment of schizophrenia. His attorney has filed formal notice that he'll use the defense of mental disease or defect.
Prosecutors and psychologists tell the Journal & Courier that such defenses seldom succeed in Indiana.
If a jury decides that Cousins was insane at the time of Boldt's death, Cousins could be found either not guilty due to mental illness or guilty but mentally ill.
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