Woman Sentenced in Split-Personality Case
URL: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...tity_sentencing
FREEHOLD, N.J. - Nira Nevins said only one of her many personalities robbed a bank, but they're all going to jail. Nevins, 55, woman maintains that an alternate, childlike personality came over her the day she robbed the bank.
"I am so ashamed of our actions," she told Superior Court Judge Edward M. Neafsey on Tuesday.
The judge ordered Nevins to serve 18 years in prison for kidnapping the bank's head teller and forcing her to drive from the scene. He also imposed a concurrent 13-year prison term for the armed robbery of the bank in 2002.
Nevins must serve 15 years and three months before becoming eligible for parole.
A jury convicted her in August following a trial that included the appearance of "Jimmy," the child personality Nevins said robbed the bank of just more than $5,000.
Nevins' attorney, Paul Edinger, had argued she suffered from dissociative identity disorder, formerly called multiple personality disorder, and should be acquitted by reason of insanity.
She testified that she had considered suicide the morning of March 20, 2002. The next thing she recalled was being in a police car after the robbery.
But Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Jacquelynn Seely portrayed Nevins as a manipulative, intelligent woman who planned the robbery to pay off $124,000 in debts.
Jurors rejected Nevins' defense, saying afterward they believed Jimmy's emergence was faked.
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Information from: Asbury Park Press, http://www.app.com
URL: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...tity_sentencing
FREEHOLD, N.J. - Nira Nevins said only one of her many personalities robbed a bank, but they're all going to jail. Nevins, 55, woman maintains that an alternate, childlike personality came over her the day she robbed the bank.
"I am so ashamed of our actions," she told Superior Court Judge Edward M. Neafsey on Tuesday.
The judge ordered Nevins to serve 18 years in prison for kidnapping the bank's head teller and forcing her to drive from the scene. He also imposed a concurrent 13-year prison term for the armed robbery of the bank in 2002.
Nevins must serve 15 years and three months before becoming eligible for parole.
A jury convicted her in August following a trial that included the appearance of "Jimmy," the child personality Nevins said robbed the bank of just more than $5,000.
Nevins' attorney, Paul Edinger, had argued she suffered from dissociative identity disorder, formerly called multiple personality disorder, and should be acquitted by reason of insanity.
She testified that she had considered suicide the morning of March 20, 2002. The next thing she recalled was being in a police car after the robbery.
But Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Jacquelynn Seely portrayed Nevins as a manipulative, intelligent woman who planned the robbery to pay off $124,000 in debts.
Jurors rejected Nevins' defense, saying afterward they believed Jimmy's emergence was faked.
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Information from: Asbury Park Press, http://www.app.com