HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — The fate of a young Tampa woman accused of killing her parents could soon be in the hands of the jury.
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Mental health has been at the center of the double murder trial of Nicole Nachtman, a former Florida State University student accused in the killing her mother and stepfather in 2015 at their Carrollwood home.
Prosecutor say she killed Myriam and Robert Dienes because her parents were demanding. However, the defense says Nachtman had a psychotic breakdown after years of abuse by her mother.
"You as the jury are now being asked not to decide what a typical 21-year-old would've done in these circumstances, but what Nicole Nachtman had been exposed to, her mental state, and what was going on in her mind," Defense Attorney Dana Herce-Fulgueira said.
Prosecutor Courtney Derry said, "We are not unsympathetic to mental illness. And it is not disputed that Nicole Nachtman has a mental illness, but her mental illness did not justify the execution-style murders of Robert and Myriam Dienes between August 18 and August 20 of 2015."
Prosecutors will get to have the last word when they rebut the defense's closing arguments. After that, the judge will give the jury their instructions and their deliberations will begin.
If convicted, Nachtman will face life in prison.