Family of slain woman objects to plea, insanity finding that husband found not responsible

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — A Monkton neighborhood was shaken after Baltimore County police say a woman was found stabbed to death inside her home, and now her family is objecting to a proposed plea and recommendation that the victim’s husband be found not criminally responsible for stabbing her to death.

Police said officers responded around 6:15 a.m. on Sept. 29 to the 900 block of Maplehurst Lane for a domestic disturbance. Authorities said they found a dead woman with “trauma-related” injuries. Police later identified her as 56-year-old Kimberly Lechner.

Anthony Lechner, 55, was charged with first-degree murder. Police said Kimberly Lechner was stabbed multiple times Monday morning and was found in the upstairs hallway of their home on Maplehurst Lane in Baltimore County.

Charging documents obtained by FOX45 News said the victim’s brother witnessed the killing. Police said that just after 6 a.m. on Sept. 29, officers received a call for a “physical domestic disturbance in progress with a weapon. The 911 caller stated that his brother-in-law was stabbing his sister.”

According to charging documents, when police arrived, they found Anthony Lechner with blood on him and cuts to his left wrist and right thigh. Investigators said that when approached, he asked officers, “What happened?”

Investigators said the victim’s brother told police he heard screaming and what he believed to be a physical fight, then saw Anthony Lechner on top of Kimberly Lechner “actively stabbing her,” according to charging documents. The husband later told police he “had no recollection of the incident and subsequently requested legal counsel.”

A judge ordered a competency evaluation for Anthony Lechner to determine when he will return to court.

In more recent court filings, Kimberly Lechner’s family said the defendant is asserting an insanity defense, and an evaluation has reportedly concluded he was not criminally responsible at the time of the killing. Her sister and her two children, ages 19 and 21, filed a motion seeking access to a redacted version of the not-criminally-responsible report, arguing they need it to exercise their rights as victims under Maryland law and to participate in upcoming proceedings. The motion also seeks a postponement of the upcoming hearing and cites the Maryland Supreme Court’s decision in Adnan Syed v. Hae Min Lee, which the family contends supports victims’ rights to be informed and heard.

The family also raised concerns about alleged contact from jail. According to the motion, Anthony Lechner allegedly left unsolicited voice messages for his son last month using what the family claims was a prison employee’s personal cellphone rather than the monitored inmate phone system. In the messages, the defendant allegedly denied responsibility, said he “always knew God was going to protect” him, and blamed drugs, saying “the drugs were really the cause of everything.”

Beyond the criminal case, the family said it is increasingly concerned about the financial consequences of an NCR finding. Under Maryland’s “slayer rule,” people who intentionally kill someone are generally barred from inheriting from the victim, but the family argues an exception exists when a defendant is found not criminally responsible because of mental illness. The family said that if the court accepts the NCR finding and inheritance laws apply as they fear, Anthony Lechner could potentially inherit assets from his wife’s estate valued at more than $2 million, including the family home, vehicles and retirement accounts.

The family also argued that Kimberly Lechner’s children may not automatically receive a share of the estate despite being her surviving children because they are legal adults and also the defendant’s biological children, and Maryland intestacy laws could result in assets passing to their father rather than directly to them.

Court filings further allege the defendant has sought to end financial support for his college-age children, directed that Kimberly Lechner’s disabled brother leave the family home, and declined to disclaim retirement assets that could otherwise pass to the children.

The family and friends of Kimberly Lechner appeared today at the Circuit Court for Baltimore County at 401 Bosley Ave., joined by former Maryland Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah, to object to a proposed plea and a recommendation that Anthony Lechner be found not criminally responsible for stabbing her to death. They said the recommendation was based on a single doctor’s report they have not been permitted to see.

The victim’s sister also criticized what she described as investigative failures, including the decision to order a toxicology screen of the victim but not the defendant, and what she said was a failure to seek a search warrant for the defendant’s cellphone. The family said their own investigation found evidence left behind at the home, including pill bottles for prescription medications they said should not be mixed with alcohol, and they said friends and family described alcohol abuse in the days and weeks before the killing.

The family also pointed to a message they said the defendant wrote to his wife two weeks before her death: “My #1 goal is to feel substantially better by 9/27. That will give me hope. [If] not, I will reconsider my options. I wrote this in my journal.” They said the murder happened the morning of Sept. 29, 2025, and they also referenced messages they said the defendant sent to his daughter the day before the killing about her college essay.

A neighbor, identified as Barber, reacted to the case, saying, “That’s just awful. I mean, you know, who knows? There had to be some major issues there, you know, for something like that to happen.”

The family said that while it may be too late to correct what they see as failures in this case, they are speaking out in hopes police and prosecutors handle similar cases differently in the future.