John Jonchuck murder case: Prosecution rests, shows trauma photos of Phoebe Jonchuck
Prosecutors continued Wednesday to call witnesses to testify in the John Jonchuck murder case. The judge allowed one photo of the wounds on Phoebe Jonchuck and one facial photo of the 5-year-old who was killed by her father.
As the photos were displayed Jonchuck broke from his hollow, emotionless stare and appeared emotional, even tearing up.
Phoebe fell sixty feet from the Dick Misner Bridge in St. Pete into 67 degree water back in January 2015. Her body wasn’t located for over 90 minutes and the medical examiner stated that her body temperature had dropped to 44.6 degrees.
Warm blankets and IV fluids were used to get her temperature back to 75 degrees before she was declared dead.
Medical examiner Dr. Christopher Wilson testified that the cause of death was drowning, the manner of death was homicide and “contributory condition” was hypothermia.
Just ahead of noon, the state rested as the defense began making its case with Jonchuck’s father taking the stand.
Jonchuck faces the charge of first-degree murder and if he is found guilty, Jonchuck will spend the rest of his life in prison. The defense appears to laying the groundwork for an insanity plea.
Jonchuck Sr. testified during the afternoon about his son’s past, saying that John was thrown of daycare as a child, more than once and had to be Baker Acted on more than one occasion. The man added that he did have to throw his son out of the house when he turned eighteen.
Defense attorneys plan to argue that Jonchuck was insane at the time and that voices urged him to kill his daughter.
John Jonchuck is on trial for murder his daughter, Phoebe, age 5, throwing off of a bridge
