The defense in the trial of accused sniper John Lee Malvo presented a psychiatrist today who testified Malvo was insane at the time of the sniper shootings:

Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo "displayed a pathological loyalty" to John Allen Muhammad and was so brainwashed by him that he no longer knew right from wrong, a defense psychiatrist testified Wednesday.

Malvo "was merged with Mr. Muhammad," Diane Schetky said at Malvo's capital murder trial. "He was acting as his proxy ... He was like a puppet in his hands." Asked by defense lawyer Craig Cooley if Malvo was able to distinquish right from wrong - the legal standard for insanity in Virginia - Schetky said, "I believe he was not."

Update: A second psychiatrist testified for the defense today, offering the opinion that Malvo "was unable to distinguish between right and wrong and unable to resist the impulse to commit these offenses."

The psychiatrists and a forensic psychologist who testified earlier all agree that Malvo suffers from a a dissociative disorder which one of the psychiatrists defined as "a loss of identity combined with psychological numbness, 'caused by the coercive persuasion' of Muhammad.

Malvo is expected to rest his case after the prosecution finishes cross-examining the second psychiatrist tomorrow.