State of mind at issue in murder trial 

Posted: 8:10 pm Wed, June 23, 2010
By Danny Jacobs
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

The prosecution and defense agree that Mary Catherine Koontz shot her estranged husband last June at their Glen Arm home. So, opening statements Wednesday in Koontz’s murder trial focused on whether she should be held criminally responsible for the death of Ronald G. Koontz.

Deputy State’s Attorney Robin S. Coffin said Mary Koontz checked into a Towson hotel under an assumed name prior to the shooting and took off her shoes upon entering the house.

Six months earlier, Coffin said, the defendant began “getting her affairs in order,” giving her adult son from a previous relationship the deed to a Florida condominium, which she had acquired under the separation agreement with her husband in July 2008.

“You’ll hear from experts about her mental health, but you’ll see from the evidence her state of mind,” Coffin told jurors in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

Coffin said the turning point was when the couple’s 17-year-old daughter, Kelsey, became a teenager.

“Kelsey got wings,” she said. “She went to seventh grade and her world didn’t revolve around Mary.”

The prosecutor went on to describe Mary Koontz as prone to violent outbursts that targeted her husband and daughter after Ron Koontz had her arrested and taken to a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation in November 2007, effectively ending their marriage.

“It’s all about what she wants,” Coffin said. “And if she doesn’t get it, she rages and she tantrums.”

‘Love story’

But Richard M. Karceski, Koontz’s lawyer, described his client as a broken woman trying to get help and her life back together even as her husband pushed her away. He compared Koontz’s actions to those of John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981 to win the heart of actress Jodie Foster.

“That matter is no different than this because we have a love story here, believe it or not,” said Karceski, a Towson solo practitioner. “Mrs. Koontz suffered from mental disorders in a way that prevented her from appreciating the criminality of her conduct.”

Ron Koontz was taken to the hospital after Mary Koontz shot him four times in the arm, back and stomach. He died of his injuries hours later.

Karceski’s opening statement was twice as long as Coffin’s and he tried to take the “luster” off prosecutors’ claims of premeditation.

Mary Koontz was in town last June to find a place where she could live with her other adult son, who has a mental illness, and to seek treatment for herself at Sheppard Pratt, Karceski said. She had used fake names on two previous hotel stays to prevent that son from calling her “nonstop,” Karceski added.

“If what a person does is a product of that person’s disorder, the order you see among the disorder doesn’t qualify,” he said.

Karceski said Ron Koontz, a licensed clinical social worker with a doctorate in psychology, was emotionally abusive to his wife, who has also claimed she was molested and assaulted as a child.

“He knew what buttons to push and when to push them,” Karceski said.

The defense lawyer also wondered aloud why Ron Koontz did not change phone numbers to stop receiving his wife’s calls, or get her help, considering his professional background.

Instead, Karceski argued, Ron Koontz created a “perfect storm of problems” for his wife by cutting her off from himself and their daughter.

“What does [that isolation] mean to someone that does not have any disorder?” Karceski asked. “What does that mean to someone who is broken?”

Prosecutors are seeking life without the possibility of parole for Mary Koontz. Testimony in the trial began later Wednesday and continues Thursday.