A defense lawyer says he's won't raise an insanity defense for a Waverly man charged with killing two people over a land dispute in the Valley.
Attorney Art Donato made the remark at a hearing Thursday in Bradford County Court in Towanda.
Donato represents John Joseph DeSisti, who is accused of the November 2006 shotgun slayings of his cousin, Carol Keeffe, and her husband, David Keeffe, a prominent attorney in Sayre.
"It was a question that the judge asked in passing that I answered," Donato said, when asked for comment by The Daily Review.
"The defense in this case has never been insanity," he told the newspaper. "The defense has always been that he did not commit these offenses. He did not commit these murders."
DeSisti arrived at the courthouse on a stretcher and sat in a wheelchair during the hearing. He has been jailed since his arrest in 2010.
The defense has asked the court to reconsider a previous finding that DeSisti is competent to stand trial. That motion is still pending.
