A Sept. 21 sanity phase retrial was scheduled Thursday for a woman who killed her 74-year-old great-aunt.
Tiffany Nicole Burney, 26, was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the Dec. 14, 2011, shooting death of Daisy Mae Hayes. A jury deadlocked 8-4 in favor of declaring the defendant sane at the time of the killing.
Deputy Public Defender Kevin Haughton told jurors that Burney was delusional and in a psychotic state when she shot Hayes, who was like a second grandmother to her.
Haughton said Burney — who was diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia — started hearing voices at age 11 and was first hospitalized for her mental illness when she was 13.
But Deputy District Attorney Marisa Di Tillio said Burney was angry that she didn’t measure up to the rest of the family and decided to take it out on Hayes, who was considered the “heart” of the family.
Burney showed up at the victim’s door sometime after 3 a.m. and asked to use the bathroom, Di Tillio said. As Hayes waited on a couch, Burney emerged from the bathroom with a gun drawn and shot her four times in the face, the prosecutor said.
“She (Burney) intended to kill,” Di Tillio told the jury.
Di Tillio said Burney fled the scene and called police a few days later after checking into a hospital.
Burney confessed to the killing and told police she was angry because “everyone was winning and I was losing,” Di Tillio told the jury.
—City News Service
