Baltimore County man found not criminally responsible in murder of wife in Monkton

Choking back sobs, a Baltimore County man clad in an orange jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists and ankles told Circuit Court Judge Evelyn Cusson that his wife was the best thing that ever happened to him.

“She had my back,” he said. “I don’t know what happened really, but I love my wife and I’ll say it until the day I die.”

The man, Anthony Lechner, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to killing his wife, Kimberly “Kimmie” Lechner, inside their Maplehurst Lane home on Sept. 29, 2025.

The 56-year-old — who fatally stabbed his wife eight times last year — will be held indefinitely in the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, Maryland’s maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Jessup, after Cusson ruled Lechner was not criminally responsible for his wife’s murder.

Lechner was evaluated in April by a doctor from the Maryland Department of Health. The doctor found that Lechner met the definition of not criminally responsible for the crime, meaning that he did not know right from wrong, or was not conscious of what he was doing because of a mental or intellectual disorder.

Lechner acknowledged in court that he’s been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression.

Deputy State’s Attorney Lisa Dever did not object to Cusson’s decision and said the prosecution had no reason to question the doctor’s evaluation.

Brian Thompson, Lechner’s attorney, said his client’s case was the clearest example of someone being not criminally responsible that he’d seen.

“Doctors decide who’s mentally ill, right?” the defense attorney said. “I don’t think it’s for lawyers to second-guess psychiatric professionals.”

Kimberly Lechner’s family, represented by former Maryland Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah, objected to the plea and Cusson’s ruling.

“We can never accept he did not have accountability and had some criminal responsibility,” Kimberly Lechner’s sister, Erika Andersen-Hiler, told the court. “Three-hundred and ten painful days ago ... this day remains etched in our hearts as the worst day of our lives. It is the day this entire nightmare began.”

What happened?

In court, Kimberly Lechner’s brother, Matthew Andersen, who lived below his sister and brother-in-law and witnessed the killing, gave a victim impact statement detailing the murder.

“I heard Kim screaming, ‘No, Tony! I love you! No, Tony! I love you,’” Andersen recalled. “I turned to the left, and you were kneeling on top of her, stabbing her with a butcher knife.”

Testifying before Cusson, Andersen slammed his fist on the table eight times as he recounted how Lechner stabbed his sister that many times.

Records show that when Baltimore County Police arrived at the home, they found Lechner covered in blood with cuts on his wrist and thigh.

“What happened?” he asked the officers.

Andersen said he called police and eventually got his brother-in-law off his sister by hitting his head with a bust of Abraham Lincoln, but she died from her injuries before paramedics could arrive.

Lechner, meanwhile, appeared delirious and kept asking to see his wife, Andersen said.

Criminally responsible?

Andersen-Hiler, the eldest of the Andersen siblings, said the family questioned Lechner’s insanity plea and why they were unable to review the state’s mental health evaluation. That report is sealed from the public under a federal law designed to protect patients’ confidentiality.

Court records show that Vignarajah filed a motion in June requesting that the family be allowed to review a redacted version of the report, but it was denied.

Thompson, Lechner’s lawyer, said he offered the family and Vignarajah an opportunity to see the report earlier this year.

Not having access to the report and not understanding why Lechner was declared not criminally responsible make it difficult for the family to accept that he could inherit money from the wife he killed, Andersen-Hiler said.

“We object to it that he will potentially be allowed to inherit all of Kim’s hard-earned money, their joint money, the children’s home, childhood home,” she said.

Under Maryland law, people who intentionally kill someone are generally barred from inheriting from their victim, but Andersen-Hiler said the family is concerned Lechner could receive up to $2 million in assets from his wife’s estate.

What’s next?

The Andersen family is desperate to honor Kimberly Lechner’s memory.

She grew up in Middletown, New Jersey, then worked at T. Rowe Price Group before becoming an educator at Two by Two, a preschool affiliated with Hereford Faith & Life Church, according to her obituary.

“She deserves to be remembered as the incredible mom, the daughter, the sister, the aunt, the cousin, the niece, the teacher, the friend — all of the roles that she was honored to hold in her 56 years on this earth,” Andersen-Hiler said.

Vignarajah told reporters outside the Towson courthouse that the family was incredibly frustrated by the process.

He added that they would take time to decide whether to appeal the court’s decision not to allow the family to see Lechner’s medical evaluation.

“This family has a lot to digest,” Vignarajah said. “But in the days ahead, I know they want to make sure they honor Kim’s memory and ensure that some measure of justice is achieved, even if it wasn’t achieved today.”