Guilty Verdict in Murder of Teenager to Steal Unborn Baby

January 27, 2010 by Cathy Ribble
Filed under: News

Darlene Lee, Kia Johnson's mother - Image by Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

Andrea Curry-Demus, a 46-year-old Pennsylvania woman, was found guilty on Monday , but mentally ill, of second-degree murder and kidnapping of a pregnant teenager in order to steal her baby.

Currey-Demus lured the pregnant teenager to her apartment, drugged her, cut out her baby, then killed her and tried to pass off the baby as her own child.

A long history of mental illness was presented in the record. Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning said that Monday’s verdict was “perhaps more merciful than the defendant deserves.”

Judge Manning also stated that he was not satisfied that the Defendant’s psychotic delusions allowed her to form the intent to kill. That was a critical issue in arriving at a verdict of second-degree murder, rather than first-degree.

The second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life prison sentence without parole. A formal sentencing hearing will be held in March. It is likely that Curry-Demus will spend time in a prison mental hospital until doctors conclude her condition has improved enough for her to spend the remainder of the sentence in prison.

The family of Kia Johnson, the 18-year-old victim, is questioning the claims of mental illness, but is relieved that Kia’s killer will spend the rest of her life behind bars.

“She’s cold. She has ice running through her blood. For her to do something like this, you have to be a monster,” said Johnson’s mother, Darlene Lee.

Judge Manning, the prosecuting attorney, and the defense agreed that Curry-Demus was obsessed with babies. She told her family and friends that she was pregnant, put her name on another woman’s ultrasound picture and even decorated a nursery. She also claimed that she had several miscarriages and a baby who died of sudden infant death syndrome.

Curry-Demus met Johnson at the Allegheny County Jail in July 2008 while visiting different inmates. She offered Johnson a ride home from the jail on July 15, 2008. Curry-Demus told Johnson she would give her clothes for her baby and persuaded the teenager to come to her apartment where the vicious attack occurred.