A two-pack-a-day smoker and two-pot-a-day coffee drinker was likely suffering nicotine and caffeine withdrawal when he admitted to police that he killed his estranged wife last year, a psychiatrist said.

The symptoms left Denny Winner in a weakened mental and physical state and "affected his ability to understand his rights" when he confessed to the slaying after a 14-hour police interrogation, according to Dr. Grace McGorrian.

Still, Winner, 44, of Butler, described as a man of below-average intelligence, is competent to stand trial, she said.

McGorrian's testimony came Monday at a pre-trial hearing before Butler County Judge William Shaffer.

Winner, who remains in the Butler County Prison without bond, is awaiting trial in the fatal stabbing of his 36-year-old wife, Lynette, inside her city duplex Nov. 20, 2004.

Police said he returned 13 days later and set her corpse and the apartment on fire.

Winner told police he accidentally stabbed Lynette seven times after she became enraged and came at him with a knife when he refused her demands for sex.

He is charged with homicide, arson, burglary, risking a catastrophe and abuse of a corpse.

But defense attorney Joe Kecskemethy has asked the court to toss out his client's confession, arguing police coerced it.

Kecskemethy also claims Winner did not understand his Miranda rights to have an attorney with him when questioned Dec. 14 and 15 by police about his wife's death.

McGorrian, the psychiatrist at the county prison, interviewed Winner on Aug. 31 and again Sept. 8 at the jail, more than eight months after his arrest.

She concluded following the interviews and after reviewing Winner's court files and his 52-minute videotaped statement to police that the defendant was fatigued and not alert when interrogated at the barracks.

His deprivation of coffee and cigarettes during the hours of interrogation led to an "inability to focus" and made it impossible to resist aggressive police questioning, she told Kecskemethy.

A person suffering from caffeine and nicotine withdrawal is known to experience severe anxiety, restlessness, depression and discomfort, she said.

"I feel damned close to absolute certainty he was withdrawing severely due to a lack of caffeine and nicotine intake," McGorrian said.

Winner told McGorrian he drank between 10 and 16 cups of coffee and smoked two to three packs of cigarettes daily. He had smoked that much for 33 years.

He drank only one caffeinated beverage and had but one cigarette during some 14 hours of police questioning before his alleged confession.

She also said Winner was adversely affected by having had only five hours of sleep the night before he was questioned.

Additionally, she testified the defendant was of below-average intelligence and was suffering at the time from acute stress disorder due to his wife's death.

She said all those factors combined to hamper Winner's ability to understand his rights and the consequences of statements he made to police.

But prosecutor assistant district attorney Jerry Cassady questioned some of McGorrian's conclusions, and suggested Winner was aware of the gravity of the situation he found himself.

"Isn't it clear from the video that the defendant was using reason to minimize his involvement in the killing?" he asked McGorrian at one point.

Cassady later argued that in giving the statement to police, Winner was "taking advantage of the opportunity to give his spin of what he did."

McGorrian, however, disputed the suggestion and stuck by her conclusions.

"This is not a cagey, highly bright individual trying to lay a (defense) trail," she said.

Shaffer ended the 90-minute hearing without saying when he would rule on whether to allow Winner's statements to be used at trial.