The 52-year-old Los Altos woman accused of stabbing her estranged husband while wearing bubble wrap will enter a new plea, the Palo Alto Daily News reported Thursday, that of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Laura Jean Wenke allegedly went to the couple's Redwood City construction business on Sept. 15, 2011, dressed in a jumpsuit, swathed in bubble wrap underneath, and first fired a stun gun in estranged husband's side, then stabbed him in the head and neck. He survived, but spent several days in the hospital.
Daily News reporter Bonnie Eslinger quoted Wenke's attorney Geoff Carr, who hired a psychiatrist to evaluate her, as saying "she's profoundly mentally troubled."
San Mateo County Judge Stephan Hall ordered a mistrial Wednesday, the Daily News reported, when he received word that the psychiatrist had concluded that she was not sane at the time of the stabbing. The judge ordered doctors to assess her mental health, due back on July 19.
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