Jury deliberations will begin Wednesday in the sanity phase retrial of a woman who fatally shot her 74-year-old great-aunt more than five years ago in the victim’s home in Tierrasanta.
Tiffany Burney, 28, was convicted in February 2015 of first-degree murder, but a jury deadlocked 8-4 on whether she was sane when she killed Daisy Mae Hayes.
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. on Dec. 14, 2011, and asked to use the bathroom. As Hayes waited on a couch, Burney emerged from the bathroom with a gun drawn and shot her four times in the face, Di Tillio said.
Burney fled the scene and called police a few days later, after checking into a hospital.
–City News Service
