By: TRACIE EGAN MORRISSEY
Catherine Kieu faces felony charges of torture and aggravated mayhem after she allegedly severed her husband's penis with a 10-inch knife and then throwing it in the garbage disposal. If found guilty, she could receive life in prison.
Kieu, 50, allegedly laced her husband's dinner with Ambien, and as he slept, she allegedly used rope to tie his arms and legs to the bed and cut his penis off before mutilating it in the garbage disposal. (The penis could not be reattached during emergency surgery.)
According to reports, the trial is "very sexually explicit." And while the jury is made up mostly of women, the male jurors were "visibly cringing" when the incident was described.
Kieu's lawyer's opening statements described her sad and troubled past, suggesting that it could explain her actions. Her mother died when she was five, and then she was allegedly raped when she was six years old. It was also alleged that Kieu's husband—whose name has not been released—"forced her to have sex with him" (we're pretty sure you call that "rape") and wanted a divorce after supposedly cheating on her. Immediately following the incident, Kieu told police that her husband "deserved it."
Her lawyer said that Kieu severed her husband's penis because "she wanted him to stop hurting her with it."
