FILICIDE(multiple): Colorado: Kelli Murphy charged with 1st degree murder

May 28, 2011 
DENVER - On the same day the funerals were held for her children, 41-year-old Kelli Murphy appeared in court to face two counts of first-degree murder.
Just after 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Murphy walked into the courtroom dressed in a gray jumpsuit with bandages still on her wrists. According to police, she tried to kill herself after allegedly murdering her children.
Friday morning, she waived her right of the reading of her formal charges. The judge ordered that the court's record of actions be unsealed. As a result, the charges made against Kelli Murphy were made available.
On those court actions, Murphy is charged with two counts of murder, two counts of murder of a victim less than 12 years of age and two counts of reckless child abuse.
Early Monday morning, Castle Rock Police responded to the home when a woman told 911 dispatchers she was going to commit suicide.
When officers arrived, they found 9-year-old Liam and 6-year-old Madigan dead in the bedrooms. After authorities arrived at her home Monday, Kelli Murphy was taken to the hospital with injuries to her wrists.
In court documents Kelli Murphy accuses her husband, Robert Murphy, of abusing their children.
On Tuesday, the Douglas County Coroner's Office performed autopsies on Liam and Madigan and could not determine a cause of death.
A candlelight vigil was held Thursday night in honor of Liam and Madigan. Several hundred people turned out for the vigil to remember them.
Friends, family, neighbors and community members gathered in Founders Park, less than one mile from the home where the children were found dead.
Robert Eric Murphy, the father of the victims and estranged husband of the mother accused of killing them, did not speak at the vigil. He was visibly grief stricken and surrounded by a small group of family and close friends.
The judge on Friday set a mandatory protection order against Kelli Murphy so that she cannot contact the children's father.
http://www.9news.com/news/article/200415/339/Funerals-held-for-2-kids-mother-charged

FILICIDE: Massacusetts: Sandra Dostie appeal denied

 April 30, 2011 FRED CONTRADA

NORTHAMPTON - Calling her claims "unfounded" and "roughly cobbled together," a judge has denied Sandra Dostie's motion for a new trial on the murder of her stepson.
Dostie, who is now 42, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 for smothering her 5-year-old stepson Eric Dostie in their Easthampton home. Prosecutors said Sandra Dostie resented the child support that Eric's father paid to his mother and the care Sandra had to provide the sickly boy, who had hemophilia. She was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Earlier this month, Dostie's new lawyer, Framingham attorney Sandra F. Bloomenthal, filed a motion for a new trial based on the contention that Janice Healy, who represented Dostie at her murder trial, violated attorney-client privilege by providing damning information to reporter Pippin Ross. Ross allegedly used the material in a Boston Magazine story published shortly before the trial. Although she included a copy of the story in her motion, along with an undated letter purportedly sent by Ross to Healy, Bloomenthal did not specify what information Healy supposedly shared with Ross. In fact, Ross' letter appears exculpatory, telling Healy she was not the primary source of the information for her story.

Judge Constance M. Sweeney, who presided over Dostie's murder trial, denied the motion Friday, less than 10 days after it was filed, calling the claims unsupported.
"A letter, which the defendant claims was written by the reporter to one of the defense attorneys, does not assist the defendant," Sweeney wrote. "The defendant fails to provide any credible basis for her allegation that one of her attorneys violated the ethical obligations attendant on the attorney-client relationship."
Sweeney goes on to say that Dostie was well represented, calling Healy a "highly experienced and skilled chief trial counsel." Healy, who currently works in the office of Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan, could not be reached for comment. First Assistant District Attorney Steven E. Gagne released a statement saying, "We are pleased the court denied the defendant's motion and preserved Dostie's conviction for murdering a 5-year-old defenseless child."
In her request for a new trial, Dostie seemingly admits murdering her stepson but claims she was suffering from a "severe mental illness" brought on by pregnancy. Sweeney also dismisses that argument, noting that Dostie swore under oath at her trial that she did not kill the child but rather that Eric was murdered by two unidentified men who supposedly broke into the house.
"The evidence revealed that the defendant hatched an elaborate plan to murder the child and an even more elaborate plan to deflect suspicion away from her," Sweeney wrote. "She is not entitled to nor does she deserve a new trial."
Bloomenthal said Friday she will appeal Sweeney's ruling. She declined to comment further, saying she had not yet seen it.
Ross did not respond to requests for an interview. At the time of Dostie's trial in 1995, she enjoyed a successful career as a journalist, reporting for the Amherst-based radio station WFCR-FM and writing for magazines. An alcohol addiction took a toll on her career, however, and she was sentenced to jail in 2005 for operating under the influence of alcohol as a fourth offender. Ross compounded her troubles when she forged documents for her early release. Charges resulting from that crime landed her in Framingham State Prison, where she became Dostie's fellow inmate. Although the two women were acquainted there, Dostie's lawyer has declined to disclose the nature of their discussions.
http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-33/1304147781307291.xml&coll=1

INFANTICIDE: Colorado: Estella Toleafoa charged with first-degree murder in baby's scalding death

March 21, 2011 : JOHN C. ENSSLIN

Prosecutors filed a first-degree murder charge Monday against a Colorado Springs mother suspected of leaving her 9-month-old alone at home in a bathtub in which he drowned in scalding hot water.
During a brief court appearance, Estella Toleafoa, 23, also was charged with child abuse resulting in the death of her son Erich Tyler Jr. and with child abuse of her 2-year-old son Jamari Toleafoa.
According to an arrest affidavit, Toleafoa told police she left Erich and Jamari naked in the tub with about an inch of water in it while she went out to buy milk at a nearby convenience store.
Instead, she went across the street to a liquor store to buy cigarettes and to a restaurant to buy chicken wings, police said.
The dead child's father is a Fort Carson soldier who was serving in Afghanistan at the time of the March 8 incident.
The murder charge alleges that Toleafoa "knowingly" caused her child's death. If convicted of first-degree murder, she would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. The child abuse resulting in death charge carries a sentence range of 16 to 48 years in prison.
On March 9, Colorado Springs police arrested her on suspicion of felony child abuse.
Deputy District Attorney Amy Fitch would not comment on why prosecutors decided to file the more serious murder charge.
David Webster, a former prosecutor turned private attorney with no connection to the case, said in general it is considerably harder to prove first-degree murder than child abuse resulting in death.
The murder charge requires that prosecutors show beyond a reasonable doubt that the mother knowingly put her child in a situation that would result in his death, Webster said.
Child abuse resulting in death requires prosecutors to prove that the mother unreasonably placed the child in a situation where death or injury could occur.
“That’s a pretty significant difference.” said Webster, who served for 10 years as a deputy district attorney in Trinidad and El Paso County. “They’re going to have to prove that she knew that when she went out. But that’s ripe for argument by a defense attorney.”
Toleafoa is being held on a $150,000 bond. Fitch said prosecutors will seek to revoke that bond now that the top charge has been upgraded to murder.
Toleafoa's surviving son has been placed with a foster family.
A date for a preliminary hearing will be set later this week.
The charges come at a time when the El Paso County Human Services Department continues to log record numbers of hotline calls of suspected child abuse.
According the county’s most recent report, in 2010 there were 12,604 calls in which people questioned someone’s parenting skills or called out of concern for the welfare of a child.
That figure was 13 percent higher than the previous record-setting year of 2009. It also marked the third year in a row in which El Paso fielded more child abuse referrals than any other county in the state. Last year, El Paso had 3,552 more calls than Denver.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/degree-114897-news-drowned.html#ixzz1HnuA8oeF

INFANTICIDE: Oklahoma: Lyndsey Fiddler accused of drowning her infant daughter in a washing machine

03/10/2011 :  Russell Mills

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - A Bartlesville woman accused of drowning her infant daughter in a washing machine will stand trial, a Washington County judge ruled Thursday.
Lyndsey Fiddler is accused of first-degree murder in the death of her 10-day-old infant, Maggie May Trammel, last November.
The first Bartlesville police officer on the scene last November, Ofcr. Stacy Neafus, told the court that when he arrived firefighters had the baby, whom he described as "limp, lifeless, gray in color."
He testified that he asked Fiddler what had happened, at which point she threw her hands into the air and exclaimed "I guess I put my baby in the washing machine."
Next on the stand was investigator Adam Duncan, who described Fiddler's demeanor during her initial 911 call as "hysterical."
Fiddler, he testified, said she had taken Lortab because of her recent C-section, and said she had smoked marijuana three months earlier.
She told Duncan that she had put the baby down to sleep in a bassinet with a pink blanket and a pacifier, then went to bed herself.
When she awoke, she said her aunt, Rhonda Coshatt, was pulling the baby out of the washing machine.
Duncan told the court that at one point Fiddler tried to blame the death on Coshatt, saying "that crazy b**** killed my baby."
The defense attorney argued that Fiddler's hysterics and attempts to perform CPR on the baby proved that she hadn't intended to kill her.
BPD Investigator Steve Birmingham took the stand later and testified that he arrived to find several officers already on the scene.
He said Ofcr. Duncan directed him to look in the washing machine for a pink blanket, which he found. He noted a "void" in the clothes in the front of the machine, and said the search also turned up a pacifier.
He also testified that officers accidentally turned the machine on when they closed the lid; they immediately unplugged it and photographed the machine's settings.
A light on the machine indicated it was on the second of two spin cycles. Birmingham described the clothes inside as soaking wet.
After a lunch break, Benjamin Trammel, the suspect's boyfriend and the dead infant's father, took the stand.
He said the baby seemed content, and that Fiddler took good care of her. When asked by the defense if the baby appeared at all unhealthy, he said "she seemed small when she was born. Other than that, I thought she was perfect."
Next to testify was Rhonda Coshatt, Fiddler's aunt and the person who discovered the baby's body.
Coshatt said she had been in Tulsa that day for a doctor's appointment. She told the court she was on several medications that day, and had trken a 15 mg morphine pill at about 4:30 that afternoon.
She said Fiddler, Trammel, and Fiddler's two young sons were home when she arrived at the house. The two boys left about 40 minutes later to attend a wrestling practice.
She said Fiddler seemed okay that evening, tired but coherent. However, she said, Fiddler "was on meth." She stated that Trammel had gotten Fiddler started on the drug, that she had tried to quit but he kept bringing it into the house.
Coshatt did admit she never actually saw Fiddler use meth, but she could tell.
"Lyndsey was (sic) a good woman," she said. "She loves her children, but she had a definite problem with methamphetamine."
After the boys left for wrestling, Coshatt said she saw Fiddler sitting in a chair feeding the baby and then getting up, presumably to put the baby down for a nap.
Fiddler returned to the chair and "passed out," according to Coshatt, who was watching TV and had the volume up fairly high.
The boys returned home shortly after 7 p.m. and at that point Coshatt said she tried to check on the baby, but couldn't find her.

After looking under sheets and clothes, she said she became frantic and tried to waken Fiddler, screaming at her asking where she had put the baby.

Fiddler later awoke and wandered the house, according to Coshatt, and then began making a baloney sandwich.
It was around this time when Coshatt said she noticed the washing machine was running off balance and going to investigate, found the baby inside.
“She looked like a doll,” said Coshatt, describing the condition of the baby. She continued on, saying the infant had a line on her forehead and down the left check. She said the baby was cold and wet. She said she tried to revive the baby and was unable to do so.

Around this time Fiddler found Coshatt with the baby and screamed at her, accusing her of killing the child, said Coshatt. The aunt said she told Fiddler it was rather she who killed the child. It was during this time that Fiddler placed the 911 call.
During the closing arguments, Fiddler's defense said Fiddler did not willfully or maliciously kill the child, and that no intent to kill a child charge could be supported.
The state argued that no specific intent was required. The prosecution said evidence collected through urine samples showed Fiddler was under the influence of intoxicants, saying that Fiddler placed

herself in a state of intoxication where she could not care for Maggie May and put her in the presence of drugs, endangering her. Essentially, the state's position was that she killed the child by neglecting her.

The judge ruled there was enough evidence for Fiddler to stand trial for both felony child neglect and first degree murder. Her next court appearance is scheduled for April 27th.

---

How it happened
The macabre story came to light with a phone call to Bartlesville police from Fiddler on Nov 4, 2010.
She told them that a relative had killed her baby, but the call taker could hear someone in the background yelling that Fiddler had killed the infant.
Police arrived at the home to find Maggie's body in the washing machine.
A medical examiner's autopsy later determined that the 10-day-old child had drowned.
The report indicated that Maggie had contusions on her scalp, left ear, neck, chest and buttocks and abrasions on her cheeks and scalp.
It concluded that she had not suffered any internal injuries.
Initially, Fiddler faced charges of felony child neglect, but a count of first-degree homicide was added after the autopsy was completed.
Investigators say the mother tested positive for methamphetamine and other drugs at the time of her arrest.
The Department of Human Services had made multiple visits to the home prior to Maggie's death, but had not removed the children from the home.
Fiddler has two young sons, who are now in DHS custody.

INFANTICIDE: Ontario Appeals Court upholds law

Mar 2 2011

Tracey Tyler Legal Affairs Reporter

The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that women accused of deliberately killing their newborn children can defend themselves by arguing the crime was infanticide, caused by a mental disturbance such as postpartum depression.
In a 3-0 decision Wednesday, the court dismissed a Crown appeal in the case of a Guelph woman known as L.B., who admitted to smothering her two infant sons but avoided a murder conviction and life sentence after arguing the crime was infanticide.
Although infanticide is punishable by up to five years in prison, L.B. was given credit for pre-trial custody and sentenced to one year in jail.
In appealing her convictions, Ontario’s attorney general, for all practical purposes, sought to abolish infanticide as a partial defence to a murder charge.
The Crown’s motivations were unclear, but appeared to flow from concerns the Criminal Code’s infanticide provisions are based on myths that women can’t control their hormones, and are allowing morally culpable killers to get away with murder.
It defines infanticide as a woman willfully causing the death of a newborn child in circumstances where she hasn’t fully recovered from the effects of childbirth or lactation and her mind is disturbed.
Wednesday’s decision is the first critical analysis of Canada’s infanticide provisions by an appeal court.
Like earlier legislation in Britain, Canada’s infanticide law, enacted in 1948, was a compromised by parliamentarians who knew that juries were often sympathetic to women on trial for the deaths of their children and unwilling to convict them of murder, particularly if it was punishable by execution, said Justice David Doherty, who wrote today’s judgment.
“In the few cases where juries did convict, judges balked at engaging in what was described as a ‘black cap farce,’ requiring judges to pronounce a death penalty knowing that the penalty was a monstrous overreaction to the crime and that it would never be carried out,” he said.
“This ‘solemn mockery’ was said to do nothing other than terrorize the mother on whom it was pronounced as she was probably the only person in the courtroom who did not know that the penalty would never be carried out,” Doherty wrote.
In Canada, 86 women have been charged with infanticide since 1977.
L.B. admitted while undergoing treatment at the Homewood Mental Health Centre that she had suffocated one son in 1998 and the other child in 2002, telling police later that she was “really confused” and “fighting with her thoughts” and that she was trying to help them.
She had grown up in an abusive home, had attempted suicide and was 17 when her first son died.
She was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
While infanticide is available as a partial defence to murder in other countries, including England, the Crown argued the infanticide provisions in Canada’s Criminal Code operate only as an offence that women can be charged with.
Writing on behalf of Justices Michael Moldaver and Eleanore Cronk, Doherty said Parliament clearly intended to make infanticide a partial defence to murder when it enacted the legislation in 1948 and the proof was in the language.
It said homicides that would normally constitute murder or manslaughter would not be “deemed” as such when a woman’s actions fit the infanticide criteria.
Doherty rejected the Crown’s contention that Parliament removed infanticide as a defence when it rewrote the legislation in 1954, taking out the “deeming provision.”
“It would take strong evidence to satisfy me that parliament intended to abandon the very purpose behind the infanticide legislation less than six years after enacting that legislation,” he said, “and that it intended to give to the prosecutorial authorities, through their charging discretion, the exclusive power to determine whether a mother who killed her newborn child could be convicted of infanticide and not murder.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/947213--infanticide-defence-available-to-mothers-who-kill-court-rules?bn=1

FILICIDE (multiple): Loisiana: Amy Hebert appeal denied

Amy Hebert

By John DeSantis
Senior Staff Writer  February 25, 2011

 

THIBODAUX — A three-judge panel has rejected appeals arguments for a Mathews woman convicted in 2009 of murdering her two children.

The Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeal ruled against attorneys for 42-year-old Amy Hebert, who was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the 2007 stabbing deaths of her 9-year-old daughter, Camille, and 7-year-old son, Braxton. She was spared the death penalty sought by prosecutors because jurors could not agree on the matter. But state District Judge Jerome Barbera sentenced her to two consecutive terms of life in prison.

Her attorneys have until mid-March to seek a review by the Louisiana Supreme Court, but no notice of such a request has yet been received.

Lafourche District Attorney Cam Morvant II said the 25-page opinion of Chief Judge Burrell Carter, and judges Edward J. Gaidry and Jewel E. “Duke” Welch reflects how important letters written by Hebert on the day of the murders were in guiding the jury toward its verdict. Jurors could have found Hebert not guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity.

“They took a lot of time on this case and honed in on the letters,” Morvant said. “That’s what they questioned her attorney on — what about the letters? They were the big issue at the trial.”

New Orleans attorney Jane Beebe, who filed the appeal for Hebert, argued that the evidence presented during the trial was insufficient to convict the former teacher’s aide of murder because defense witnesses established that she was insane at the time of the killings. Two prosecution doctors were unable to rebuff that evidence, Beebe argued.

The 25-page opinion notes that two doctors presented by defense attorneys spoke of Hebert’s delusional and psychotic behavior, including claims that the voices of God and Satan had instructed her to kill the children.

It also recounts how a prosecution doctor, Rafael Salcedo, testified that Hebert had the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Inability to make such distinctions is the standard for insanity in Louisiana. The jury, the appeals judges ruled, had the freedom to consider that opinion above the others.

Two letters written by Hebert, one to her ex-husband, Chad, and the other to her mother-in-law, Judy Hebert, discovered by police at the crime scene, clearly showed Hebert’s motive for the killings, which was anger at the potential that the children would be taken from her.

“We are convinced any rational trier of fact could have found the defendant failed to rebut her presumed sanity at the time of the offense,” the appeals court says in its decision. “The jury was free to accept or reject, in whole or in part, the testimony of any witness.”

The judges note that their job is not to determine credibility of the witnesses from a trial that has already taken place.

Hebert’s attorney also argued that Barbera erred by refusing to allow testimony from a forensic expert who said the knife patterns on the bodies of the children and family dog, which was also killed, was evidence of insanity.

But the appeals court ruled that the defense attorney’s argument lacks merit.

The appeals judges also rejected an argument by Hebert’s attorney that the trial should have been moved elsewhere because publicity made it impossible to pick an unbiased jury.

The appeals court also rejected Hebert’s attorney’s argument that consecutive sentences — meaning the two life terms will run one after another — amounts to excessive punishment.

The appeals judges ruled that Hebert’s status as a first-time felon and thus worthy of mercy in sentencing was not supported by the facts of the case.

“The defendant brutally killed her two helpless, young children,” the judgment states. “She is the worst kind of offender.”

Senior Staff Writer John DeSantis can be reached at 850-1150 or john.desantis@dailycomet.com

http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20110225/ARTICLES/110229652/1212?p=all&tc=pgall