Dad who hurled ‘demon’ daughter, 5, off huge bridge convicted of her murder
A father who called his daughter a demon then hurled her off a bridge to die was found guilty Tuesday.
John Jonchuck’s lawyers claimed their client was insane when he threw his 5-year-old daughter, Pheobe, off the 60-foot high Dick Mesiner Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida in January 2015.
After a 21-day trial and six hours of deliberation, a jury disagreed with the insanity defense and found Jonchuck guilty of first degree murder.
Jonchuck sped towards the famous bridge, which runs over Tampa Bay, as a police officer followed him, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
He parked on the bridge picked Phoebe up off the back seat as the cop yelled for him to get back in the car, shouting: ‘Let me see your hands.’
Jonchuck responded: ‘You have no free will!’ then casually walked over to the guard rail, before dropping his screaming daughter off the edge.
A subsequent autopsy revealed that Phoebe survived the fall, but hypothermia caused from exposure to the cold water later contributing to her death.
Jonchuck was previously declared unfit to stand trial over Phoebe’s death, but doctors insisted that Jonchuck’s medication meant he is was sufficiently competent to face a jury.
During a preliminary hearing in December 2018, a court heard how the claimed ‘voices’ told him to kill his daughter.