Man accused of dismembering girlfriend to be in court

Barbara Rodriguez / AP

Jessica Rae Sacco was killed on March 30 at this home in Urbana, Ohio.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

An Ohio?man indicted on charges of stabbing, suffocating and dismembering his girlfriend was set to appear in court on Tuesday along with four others linked to the crime.

Butler County Sheriff Department

Matthew Puccio, 25, admitted to the crime in a newspaper interview, adding that he would plead guilty,?but then?told a court last Friday that he was?"clinically insane." He could face up to life in prison if convicted of killing Jessica Rae Sacco, 21.

Four others are accused of failing to stop the killing and helping to cut off or transport limbs that were dumped in southern Ohio and Kentucky.

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Puccio, from Urbana, Ohio,?told the Springfield News-Sun last week that Sacco begged him to kill her on March 30 after a fight that started over text messages in which she allegedly said she wanted him dead. The two had met nearly two years ago on Facebook, Puccio said.?

"She started crying and told me, 'I wish I didn?t have to die but I understand what I did,'" Puccio said.

Excerpts from the newspaper report and?interview:

"And she told me to stab her then, so I just held my hand above her stomach. She grabbed my wrist and pulled it into her stomach," he said.

Puccio said Sacco bled on his lap for seven hours. Then, he grabbed a plastic bag.

?She asked me if I could just let her die already. I told her, ?There is only one way I can do that, and it?s not going to be pleasant,? ? Puccio said.

Puccio claimed Sacco "smiled" as he put a bag over her head. Weak from the stab wound, it only took "about 20 seconds" for her to succumb, he said.

"I just laid next to her and cried. Kept telling her 'I?m sorry,'" Puccio said.

The others charged are Christopher Wright, 37, and Sharon Cook, 25, both of Urbana; and Kandis Forney, 25, and Andrew Forney, 26, both of Michigan.

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