An Allegheny County judge yesterday denied hospitalization for Andrea Curry-Demus, the Wilkinsburg woman accused of killing a pregnant teenage girl and cutting a baby boy from her womb, even though a psychiatrist said she was "psychotically ill."

Using a video conferencing system, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning questioned Ms. Curry-Demus to see if she understood what was happening in the courtroom.

"Yes," she told him through a television monitor, as she sat in the Allegheny County Jail, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit.

"What are you charged with?" the judge asked.

"Homicide," she replied.

Last Friday, police found the body of 18-year-old Kia Johnson in Ms. Curry-Demus' Ella Street apartment in Wilkinsburg. The girl's stomach was sliced open and her hands and feet were restrained by duct tape.

Ms. Curry-Demus, 38, has a long history of mental illness. She has been to Mayview State Hospital twice, the first time in 1990 after she stabbed a woman and kidnapped an infant. At the time, she was recovering from a miscarriage and was complaining of hearing babies cry.

Yesterday, Dr. Christine Martone, chief of psychiatry at the county jail, asked Judge Manning to send Ms. Curry-Demus back to Mayview for 90 days of evaluation.

She has diagnosed the woman with paranoid schizophrenia.

Dr. Martone said she met with Ms. Curry-Demus in the jail's behavior clinic on Monday. The woman had trouble focusing and appeared to be having hallucinations. She complained that other inmates at the jail were talking about her, even though "nobody was doing anything at that point," Dr. Martone said.

On Tuesday, Ms. Curry-Demus met with her lawyer, Angela Carsia, who represented her in 2004 and 2006 on shoplifting charges.

"It was difficult to communicate with her," Ms. Carsia said after yesterday's hearing.

But Ms. Curry-Demus seemed to understand Judge Manning's questions.

"I'm satisfied," he said. "She appears to be competent."

He also ordered "periodic checkups" on Ms. Curry-Demus' mental condition.

Today, Ms. Curry-Demus faces another hearing, and a different judge will decide whether she should be held for trial.

Dr. Martone also interviewed Ms. Curry-Demus in 1990, after the woman's first arrest. She diagnosed her with major depression and a personality disorder.

Ms. Curry-Demus went on to serve seven years in a state prison, and she was supposed to be on probation until 2011.

In October 2006, after she was arrested on shoplifting charges, Allegheny County's Office of Behavioral Health created an updated "service plan" that required her to cooperate with mental health treatment at UPMC's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

Her lawyer said yesterday that she is taking medications, but she didn't know which ones.

Police say Ms. Curry-Demus likely met a pregnant Ms. Johnson at the county jail several days before the teenager's death. They both had been visiting inmates.

Ms. Curry-Demus told investigators that two other people dropped Ms. Johnson off at her apartment and she had never met the woman before. Allegheny County homicide detectives are still investigating.

The medical examiner's office is awaiting toxicology test results and has not yet released an exact cause of death for Ms. Johnson.

Memorial services for Ms. Johnson will be held today at Trinity Church of God in Christ in McKeesport. Her infant son, Terrell Kian Johnson, was released from West Penn Hospital on Wednesday.