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CRIME

Florida dad who dropped daughter off bridge claims insanity

Associated Press
Published | Updated

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A murder trial is moving forward for a Florida man who threw his 5-year-old daughter off a Tampa Bay area bridge.

Prosecutors made opening statements Monday afternoon at the Pinellas County Courthouse. It took a week for lawyers to agree on 12 jurors and four alternates to decide the fate of 29-year-old John Jonchuck.

No one disputes that Jonchuck dropped his daughter Phoebe 62 feet (18 meters) into Tampa Bay on Jan. 8, 2015, and prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. If convicted of first-degree murder, he'll automatically go to prison for life.

Jonchuck's lawyers are using an insanity defense. They must convince jurors his mental illness was so severe that he didn't know what he was doing.