SALEM, Mass. (AP) — The trial of a Marblehead man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her nearly full-term fetus is scheduled to start this week.

Peter Ronchi ‘s trial on two counts of first-degree murder is expected to get under way Tuesday in Salem Superior Court.

Police say Ronchi stabbed 42-year-old Yuliya Galperina (yoo-LEE'-uh gal-per-EE'-nuh) in May 2009 when she told him the baby was not his, then fled to Connecticut before turning himself in to police.

The Salem News (http://bit.ly/VQb8xg ) reports that prosecutors say the baby was, in fact, Ronchi’s and he was simply looking for a way out of the relationship

Defense lawyers say their client was mentally ill at the time, unable to understand that what he was doing was wrong or to understand what he was telling police after.

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