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Trial underway for murder featured in ‘Mommy Dead and Dearest’ flick

The trial is underway in the case of a Wisconsin man who allegedly stabbed to death the mother of his girlfriend in a high-profile case that exposed the mother-daughter duo’s twisted relationship.

Nicholas Godejohn, 29, appeared in court Tuesday in the first-degree murder case of 48-year-old Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who had been found stabbed 17 times in June 2015 at her home in Springfield, Missouri.

Gypsy BlanchardAP

Prosecutors argued Godejohn carried out the murder to be with his then-23-year-old girlfriend, Gypsy Blanchard, whose mother imprisoned her and forced her to pretend she was disabled, among other alleged acts of abuse related to Munchausen by proxy syndrome, a condition in which a person acts as if a healthy individual in their care has a physical or mental illness.

“Eventually the defendant learns that Gypsy, who was in a wheelchair, didn’t have to be in one; he learns that Gypsy isn’t happy at home and that Clauddine is never going to let him be in a relationship with her,” Greene County Assistant Prosecutor Nathan Chapman said in opening arguments.

Godejohn’s lawyers, however, revealed their client has been diagnosed with autism and argued he had been taken advantage of by his girlfriend.

“You are going to understand that Nick wasn’t able to formulate the necessary cognitive state to commit murder in the first degree,” defense attorney Andrew Mead told the court.

Gypsy, now 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection to her mother’s death and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In her 2016 trial, she admitted that she arranged for Godejohn — whom she met on dating site Christian Dating for Free — to travel to Springfield to kill her mother.

The bizarre case was the subject of documentaries such as HBO’s “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” which featured interviews with Gypsy about how the close-knit bond with her mother unraveled after years of alleged abuse.

The prosecution claimed Tuesday that Godejohn plotted for a year with his online girlfriend to kill Dee Dee before the murder. The couple allegedly exchanged texts in which Godejohn told his girlfriend “not to underestimate his will to kill,” according to officials.

“It’s the defendant who suggests he’s going to finish Clauddine no matter what” Chapman said.

Chapman claimed Tuesday that the defendant deliberated on several occasions whether to kill Dee Dee before ultimately following through with their plot.

“Before he got to the house and walked in the front door, he was handed the blue gloves and the knife and deliberated and in his words he had two thoughts: a benevolent thought, which he described as an angel, that said take Gypsy and run, and a malevolent thought — a devil on the other shoulder that said, ‘The bitch is dead,'” Chapman said.

Prosecutors said the defendant then went into Dee Dee’s bedroom, where she was sleeping on her stomach, and stabbed her in the back numerous times.

“He can tell some are going deeper than others because the knife is getting harder to pull back,” Chapman said.

Godejohn then allegedly asked Gypsy to clean up her mother’s blood naked because that “turned him on,” according to officials. Following the gruesome homicide, the pair then reportedly returned to Gypsy’s room to have sex.

They allegedly took the knife and latex gloves used in the act and put them in an envelope to mail to Godejohn’s residence, where the couple fled in the aftermath of the murder.

From the residence, Gypsy posted on a Facebook account she shared with her mother, saying, “The bitch is dead,” according to officials.

The post alarmed neighbors, who called 911 and gained entry into the Blanchard home. That’s where they found Dee Dee dead in a blood-soaked nightgown.

Using the Facebook post, investigators were able to track the couple to the defendant’s home, where he allegedly confessed to the slaying, according to authorities.

It was only then that neighbors and friends of the Blanchards reportedly learned Gypsy wasn’t wheelchair-bound or suffering from leukemia.

The opening arguments marked the first day of what is expected to be a weeklong trial. There’s a possibility the defense may call Gypsy to the stand.