Lacy Lakeview woman to use insanity defense in capital murder trial
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A Lacy Lakeview woman charged with breaking into her neighbor’s home in 2022, shooting her in the head and claiming she “drank her blood” will employ an insanity defense during her capital murder trial next week.
Cynthia Ellen Ming, 54, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Tuesday during a hearing in Waco’s 54th State District Court. Prior to her plea, Ming rejected an offer of 55 years in prison on a lesser murder charge from prosecutors Duncan Widmann and Luke McCowan.
Ming and her attorney, Clay Thomas, will allege Ming was insane when she killed 45-year-old Angie Melissa Moore Sept. 7, 2022, at Moore’s home in the 400 block of Whispering Avenue.
If found guilty of capital murder, Ming, who court records show has a history of mental disorders dating back to early adulthood, faces life in prison with no parole.
If the jury finds her not guilty by reason of insanity, she likely will be ordered into a secure mental hospital for treatment. Jury selection in her trial is set to begin Monday morning, with Visiting Judge Roy Sparkman presiding.
Ming remains jailed under $1 million bond and has been examined at least three times by mental health professionals, first to gauge her competency to stand trial and later to determine if her mental health disorders precluded her from knowing right from wrong when she killed her estranged neighbor.
The prosecutors told Sparkman that their mental health expert will testify that Ming was sane at the time of the offense, while Thomas said his expert has a conflicting opinion.
Ming told health care workers attending to her injuries after her arrest that she “murdered” Moore because Moore reportedly killed her dog, according to records filed in the case.
Moore called police shortly before midnight to report Ming was trying to break into her home. Moore told the 911 operator she had a gun and would be forced to use it in self-defense, an arrest affidavit alleged.
Officers arrived a few minutes later and found Ming, naked and covered in blood, fleeing from the residence, the officers reported.
In an evaluation of Ming late last month, Dr. Lee Carter determined that Ming was sane at the time of the offense despite diagnoses of borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder and schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type.
Ming told Carter that she and Moore had a “hostile” relationship and frequently called police on each other.
On the night of the murder, Ming told Carter she was “electrocuted” by a live wire in her home, adding that after that she “just walked around all bugged out.”
“That’s the last thing I remember, is the light fixture,” Ming told Carter in a report filed with the court. “But then I was talking to the law-dogs (police) about what I did… and I don’t even remember it.”
Carter wrote in the report that police car cameras captured Ming showing no remorse and speaking voluntarily about breaking into Moore’s home, taking the gun away from her and shooting her in the head.
Hospital records show Ming admitted during treatment that she broke in through a window, killed Moore and “then drank her blood,” according to Carter’s report.
Carter concluded that while mental illness played a role in her “misconduct,” she does not have a mental defect or disorder that “adversely affects her capacity to differentiate right from wrong.”
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