Texas Woman Who Brutally Killed Grandma with Hammer Sobs While Testifying in Her Own Defense

Tamera Laws, 28, is accused of killing Doris Ruth Novella, 70, in February 2020

News 4 (WOAI) San Antonio/Youtube Tamera Laws

News 4 (WOAI) San Antonio/Youtube

Tamera Laws

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A Texas woman accused of murdering her grandmother said she was suffering from psychosis when she beat the victim with a hammer.

Now, a San Antonio judge is deciding her fate.

Closing arguments in the murder trial of Tamera Laws, 28, ended on Friday, Jan. 31, with her attorney saying she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, KSAT reports.

Psychotic delusions drove Laws to choke her grandmother, Doris Ruth Novella, 70, stab her and then beat her with a hammer on Feb. 20, 2020, Laws’ attorney argued, KSAT reports.

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Prosecutors alleged that Laws' admitted methamphetamine use led her to kill her grandmother, News4SA reports.

Evidence shows that "the defendant's acts were attributed to her drug use, specifically methamphetamine, which is voluntary and disqualifies her from being able to assert the insanity defense," the prosecutor argued.

Laws grew so emotional during cross-examination that the judge gave her two five-minute breaks, News4SA reports.

Novella raised Law, who said she killed her grandmother because she wasn’t in her “right mind” that night, News4SA reports.

Explaining why she struck her grandmother with a hammer, she said, "I thought the [bad] energy was on me, so I was thinking to get it off, I had to beat it out," News4SA reports.

"In your right mind, would you have done anything to harm her?" her attorney Anthony Cantrell asked her.

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She said no twice before Cantrell asked her, "Did you know at the time what you were doing was wrong?” according to News4SA.

"No," she replied. "No."

Laws said she began hearing voices after she became addicted to meth, the San Antonio Express-News reports.

"I would hear voices in my head telling me that people were trying to kill me," she said. "I was like, 'I know my grandma's trying to kill me.'”

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She told her attorney that in her delusional state she believed that her father told her to kill her grandmother.

He “told me that if I did not kill my grandma, I was going to end up chopped up and sent to him in a box by Monday," she claimed, summarizing her alleged state of mind, News4SA reports.

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Laws expressed remorse for killing her grandmother and not getting help.

"I want to say I’m sorry for my grandmother for not sticking to getting help sooner," she said, according to News4SA. "[I] tried to do it on my own strength, I failed miserably, and I’m sorry for what occurred."

Her attorney did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Laws faces up to 99 years or life in prison if Judge Catherine Torres Stahl convicts her of murder, News4SA reports.

If Laws is found not guilty by reason of insanity, she will be committed to a state hospital for an extended period, News4SA reports.

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