What to Know
- Officers testified Alecia Schmuhl was coherent while Andrew Schmuhl appeared to be in and out of consciousness.
- Andrew Schmuhl's lawyers are conceding he attacked the couple on that night but are using an "involuntary insanity defense."
- Tuesday’s court proceedings followed two emotional days of testimony by the victims, describing what they went through that night.
Prosecutors on Thursday showed jurors preparations made for the savage home invasion and attack of a Virginia couple.
Attorneys Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl were charged with abduction and malicious wounding in the November 2014 attack on Leo Fisher and his wife, Sue Duncan, in their McLean home. Fisher is a partner in an Arlington law firm that fired Schmuhl's wife, Alecia, two weeks prior to the attack.
The Schmuhls are being tried separately, with Alecia Schmuhl’s to be tried in the fall.
But video played in court Thursday showed Alecia Schmuhl buying a Taser at a Herndon gun store two days before the attack. The clerk told jurors she later returned to buy more Taser cartridges. The Taser, which was recovered in the Schmuhl's getaway SUV, was used to start the three hours of terror to which Fisher and Duncan were subjected, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors tried to connect the Taser with two other weapons that were recovered. Both victims were stabbed, and a gunshot grazed Duncan’s head.
A forensic report shows there were no fingerprints on the Taser, and the one on the gun is not useful for comparison, but the print on the knife matched Andrew Schmuhl's right thumb.
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Andrew Schmuhl’s defense hopes to show he was carrying out his wife’s orders and was so heavily medicated he can’t be held responsible. The defense underscored Andrew Schmuhl’s wife bought the Taser.
Also Thursday, the jury learned that in addition to Alecia Schmuhl being fired from Fisher’s law firm, Andrew Schmuhl once sent his resume there in hopes of getting a job.
