Verity A. Beck, 44, of Jenkintown, who is accused of fatally shooting and dismembering her elderly parents in January, will use an “insanity defense” at her trial on February 5.

The trial is expected to last five days, The Pottstown Mercury reported. Beck’s lawyers have notified a judge of her trial strategy for the first time since she was arrested.

“The defense intends to offer a defense of insanity at the time of trial. At the time of the alleged offense, Ms. Beck was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act she was doing, or that she did not know that what she was doing was wrong,” defense lawyer Gregory Nester wrote in the court document.

She previously entered not guilty pleas to two counts each of first- and third-degree murder and abuse of a corpse and two counts of possessing instruments of crime, specifically a firearm and a chainsaw.

Under state law, when someone is diagnosed as insane, they are thought to suffer from a mental defect that prevents them from knowing right from wrong and would be committed to a mental health facility for treatment, the Mercury said. Once that person is cleared of mental illness they are released from supervision without prison time.

For our previous coverage of Beck’s motives, you can click here.

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