Expert says man was insane when he killed 4-year-old daughter

SMITHFIELD (AP) — A forensic psychiatrist believes a Clayton man who decapitated his 4-year-old daughter last year was insane at the time of the incident.

Charles Vance testified Thursday that 38-year-old John Violette thought he was doing the right thing when he killed his daughter Katlin.

Vance said Violette began hearing voices a month before his daughter’s death and believed God had appointed him to the “Christ Intelligence Agency,” or CIA. Violette said the voice told him Katlin was possessed by an evil spirit.

Violette’s lawyers have asked a judge to declare him not guilty by reason of insanity and send him to a state mental institution.

Violette’s wife found the child’s body in the family’s suburban home last January. An autopsy determined she died of a stab wound before the decapitation.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)