During the second day of testimony , Dima Tower, 24, took the stand Thursday, Nov. 13 against the legal advice of his public defender as the only witness in his defense.

Tower kept his eyes averted from the jury as he answered questions by the prosecution, huffing into the microphone in front of him. When pressed by Assistant State Attorney Karen Fraivillig, the lead prosecutor, about what he was thinking when he took a kitchen knife and stalked into his adoptive parents’ bedroom where he stabbed them more than 140 times, Tower finally snapped.

“I was temporarily insane,” Tower said.

Tower is accused of killing his adoptive parents, Jennifer and Robbie Tower, in their North Port home on Mallicoat Road during the late-night hours of Aug. 31, 2023. He later fled the area, leading police

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