Utah Man Had ‘Mental Breakdown’ After Ex-Wife’s Death, Daughter Testifies
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iStock/Thinkstock(SALT LAKE CITY) — The daughter of a pediatrician accused of murdering his ex-wife took the stand in a Utah courtroom Thursday, describing her father’s incoherent state following the death.
Malkie Wall, 19, testified that her father, John Wall, was “not with it” after the 2011 death of her mother, Uta von Schwedler.
“He opened the door and said, ‘Your mom’s dead, and they think I did it.’ Basically, [he] was having a mental breakdown,” she said.
Von Schwedler was found dead in her bathtub with a knife nearby. Elevated levels of Xanax were found in her system.
Prosecutors allege that Wall staged the murder to make it look like a suicide.
“This crime was committed by someone who simply wanted Uta dead,” prosecutors said in the trial’s opening statements.
Von Schwedler, a medical researcher, and Wall divorced in 2006.
Wall has pleaded not guilty. His defense attorney, Fred Metos, argued that the medical examiner didn’t definitively rule von Schwedler’s death a homicide.
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