Man accused of killing woman, eating body parts was insane, attorneys say
By Matthew Glowicki
Louisville Courier Journal
January 24, 2019
Defense attorneys for Joseph Oberhansley, the man accused of killing his estranged girlfriend and consuming parts of her body in 2014, plan to argue at trial that their client was insane at the time of the murder.
Newly filed court documents in the four-year-old case show two psychiatrists from LifeSpring, a mental health service provider in Jeffersonville, Indiana, will examine Oberhansley to determine if he was legally insane at the time of the killing.
The same psychiatrists are required to testify at trial, which is set for Aug. 19 before Clark Circuit Court Judge Vicki Carmichael.
Oberhansley, 37, was arrested in September 2014 after police found his ex-girlfriend Tammy Jo Blanton dead in her Jeffersonville home.
A grisly police affidavit filed in court alleges the estranged ex-boyfriend broke into Blanton's home, stabbed her and eventually ate parts of her body.
Oberhansley, charged with murder, burglary and rape, faces up to the death penalty if convicted.
Under Indiana state law, a person isn't responsible for the crime if "as a result of mental disease or defect" — defined as "a severely abnormal mental condition that grossly and demonstrably impairs a person's perception" — they were unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of their actions at the time.
Indiana state law states that besides guilty or not guilty, a defendant can be found not responsible by reason of insanity or guilty but mentally ill.
The issue of competency has dominated the case in recent years, with Oberhansley undergoing a number of evaluations to see if he was fit for trial.
Oberhansley was found incompetent to stand trial in October 2017 and was committed to a state mental health facility with the aim of bringing him to competency.
The following summer, a psychiatrist at Logansport State Hospital decided Oberhansley was legally competent.
Still, his attorneys, Brent Westerfeld, Bart Betteau, told the judge in court papers their client was still expressing "bizarre and irrational beliefs" including that they were working for the devil and were trying to control his thoughts.
Again, Oberhansley was evaluated by medical professionals, and in November 2018, Judge Carmichael ruled he was fit for trial.
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