Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 11:13 AM
The King of Prussia man convicted last week in the 2012 murders of a baby and her grandmother exhibits signs of severe mental illness, including elements of bipolar disorder that impair his judgment, a forensic psychologist testified Tuesday.
Raghunandan Yandamuri has a high IQ of about 120, estimated Gerald Cooke, who spent at least nine hours with Yandamuri and administered a battery of tests and evaluations. But he has suffered from psychotic and depressive episodes, he said, displays grandiosity and tends to deny or minimize his own problems.
Bipolar disorder, Cooke said, 'is not a disorder that goes away.'
'It impairs his emotional control,' he added.
Cooke was the last to testify on behalf of Yandamuri in his sentencing hearing. After attorneys present closing arguments, jurors will start deliberating whether to sentence Yandamuri to death or to life in prison.
Yandamuri was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Satayrathi Venna, 61, and the suffocation death of her 10-month-old granddaughter, Saanvi Venna.
Prosecutors said Yandamuri, 28, a former information technology worker who immigrated from India on a work visa, plotted to kidnap the child for ransom money to feed his gambling problem and killed the grandmother when she got in his way.
Yandamuri represented himself in the trial and maintained his innocence throughout, blaming the deaths on two men who he said forced him to help them.
After his conviction, Yandamuri told Common Pleas Court Judge Steven T. O'Neill he wanted the death penalty. But, after speaking with his court-appointed attorney, he later agreed to abide by the decision of the jury.
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