Man accused in Pine Grove Mills killing plans insanity defense, court document says
The man charged in the 2016 killing of a Pine Grove Mills woman plans to mount an insanity defense, according to a notice filed Thursday by his defense lawyers.
Christopher Kowalski, 35, is headed toward trial on allegations he fatally shot Jean Tuggy, 60, inside her home. He has a history of mental illnesses, defense lawyer Tom Egan III wrote.
Kowalski has autism, chronic depression and grandiose delusional disorder. The conditions caused him to “labor under a defect of reason,” Egan wrote.
Kowalski either did not know “the nature and quality of the act he was doing” or “did not know what he was doing was wrong,” Egan wrote. A 12-page report that outlined the legal basis for the defense was not publicly included with the notice.
Kowalski’s parents and six medical professionals are among those expected to testify in an attempt to establish the defense, according to the document.
Egan declined comment Friday.
Kowalski was arrested in February, more than five years after Tuggy was found dead inside her home along Irion Street in Ferguson Township.
The two were longtime co-workers who developed a romantic relationship that Tuggy planned on ending, investigators wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
Centre County Judge Brian Marshall rejected last week one of Kowalski’s first legal challenges. He argued investigators improperly obtained evidence through a search warrant.
Marshall disagreed, writing in a 14-page ruling that Kowalski’s statements to police justified a search of a journal that referenced Tuggy’s killing.
Kowalski is detained at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
This story was originally published December 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.