A medical expert for Stephen Stanko's defense team testified Sunday that Stanko was insane at the time he killed 74-year-old Henry Lee Turner, but prosecutors were quick to try to disprove that point.
Dr. Thomas Sachy is a neuropsychiatrist and said based on mental evaluations and brain imaging of Stanko's brain, Stanko was insane.
Sachy and others testified Sunday that Stanko's frontal lobes in his brain are low-functioning and display abnormally low activity. That means, according to the defense's medical experts, that Stanko can't control impulsive rage when met with high-stress or angry situations.
The medical experts said frontal lobes are responsible for a human's ability to distinguish right from wrong, to make moral decisions, to control impulse and to feel empathy. Where a normal brain image of the frontal lobes might show red colors and lots of activity, the experts said Stanko's lobes are dim and cold and show little activity when stimulated.
The defense also said Stanko was diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, a mental illness that makes it hard for someone to "follow the rules."
Prosecutors don't dispute Stanko has anti-social disorder, but they questioned the link the defense drew between the frontal lobes and Stanko's aggressive and violent acts. They called it emerging science that isn't widely accepted in the medical community.
The defense hopes to show the jury through the anti-social and frontal lobe defense that Stanko is insane and that he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Stanko murdered his girlfriend Laura Ling in Murrells Inlet in Georgetown County and then raped and attacked Ling's daughter in 2005. A jury sentenced him to death for that murder in 2007. Stanko's defense team tried the same insanity defense in Ling's murder, but the jury didn't buy it.
Prosecutors say a few hours after the Ling murder, Stanko drove to 74-year-old Henry Lee Turner's home Conway in Horry County. Prosecutors said Stanko had built a relationship based on fraud with Turner, and they claim he went there with a motive: to steal Turner's car.
Prosecutors said Stanko told Turner his dad had just died and that he needed someone to go. Turner invited him over and fed him breakfast, and while Turner was shaving the next morning, Stanko came in and shot him once in the back and again when Turner turned around, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Stanko took Turner's truck and fled to Augusta, GA, before being arrested a few days later.
Stanko is on trial this week for Turner's death and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Lawyers expect the trial to continue through at least next weekend.
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