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Otty Sanchez Gets Jury Trial to Determine Competency for Decapitation Trial

A judge ruled Thursday that Otty Sanchez will get a jury trial to determine whether she is mentally competent to stand trial for decapitating her three-week-old baby.

Defense attorney Ed Camara believes his client was afflicted with postpartum psychosis.  Approximately one in 1,000 women with postpartum psychosis suffer dangerous delusions and desires to hurt their child.  This is different from the medical condition known as postpartum depression, which occurs in as many as one in five new mothers.

The jury sitting for either the competency trial or the capital murder charge will have a heinous case before them.  The autopsy and investigative reports of what was done to this baby are sickening.

Sanchez spent two weeks in a state mental hospital when she was found wandering around a drugstore last year, saying she was shopping for a trip to China.  Even though she was a new mother, she was treated in a hospital emergency room in July for only a few hours when she reported hearing dark voices and then sent home.

Scott Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez was found dead six days later, decapitated and missing his fingers and toes.  Police reports reflect that the baby’s mother, Otty Sanchez, was wailing about how the devil made her do it.  The jury will likely hear Sanchez screaming on recordings of the call placed by Sanchez’s sister for emergency assistance upon finding the baby.

The court has ordered two psychiatric evaluations which concluded that Sanchez was competent to stand trial, but Ed Camera, Sanchez’s attorney, told the Court that he received a medical report on Tuesday that brings that into question.  The competency trial by jury has not yet been scheduled.

Yvonne Gonzalez, the Bexar County prosecutor, plans to seek the death penalty in the case if Sanchez is found to be sane and the State is permitted to go forward with the capital murder trial.

Sanchez had apparently been “functioning quite well,” holding down a job for several years.  Prosecutors are still gathering medical records to determine if their is a long history of mental illness.

         

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Richard and Mayumi Heene Will Plead Guilty in ‘Balloon Boy’ Hoax

Richard and Mayumi Heene, Colorado parents of “balloon boy” Falcon Heene, will plead guilty in connection with criminal charges related to the hoax.  The statement was issued by Richard Heene’s attorney.

According to the statement, Richard Heene is expected to plead guilty to a felony offense of attempting to influence a public servant. Charges against Mayumi Heene carried a threat of deportation, and that was a factor in the plea negotiations.

“Mayumi Heene is a citizen of Japan.  As such, any felony conviction or certain misdemeanors would result in her deportation, even though her husband and children are Americans,” the statement said.

“It is supremely ironic that law enforcement has expressed such grave concern over the welfare of the children, but it was ultimately the threat of taking the children’s mother from the family and deporting her to Japan which fueled this deal.”

Mayumi Heene will plead guilty to the lesser offense of false reporting to authorities.  That charge is a misdemeanor of the lowest level.  The family’s attorney said the couple could receive jail time for the charges, but the prosecutor has recommended probation.

The couple hatched the plan about two weeks before the October 16 incident and “instructed their three children to lie to authorities as well as the media regarding this hoax.”  Court documents released last month indicate the couple’s motive was to “make the Heene family more marketable for future media interests.”

Millions of people across the country watched the saga on television for about two hours as the balloon floated high in the air over Colorado.  The balloon was tracked by military aircraft, and rescuers on the ground chased the balloon believing six-year-old Falcon was in the balloon.  When the balloon finally crashed to the ground with assistance by ground crews, suspicions of a hoax were raised immediately.  Twitter users covered the entire escapade in real time, boosting coverage to untold additional numbers following the event.

         

“Parenting is our core responsibility”: Jennifer Ward receives 15-17 yrs

“Parenting is our core responsibility.  Every day in my job I see the repercussions of parents not meeting this responsibility.”

Salem Superior Court Judge David Lowy announced in open court that no matter what else is going on in a person’s life, “our children’s needs come first.”

Judge Lowy embraced the tragedy before him with grim truth.  Jennifer Ward killed her baby and sat through the entire trial process without showing any emotion.  Ward received 15 to 17 years imprisonment for the involuntary manslaughter of her 9-month-old daughter, Jocelyn Mae Ward-Anderson.

“What the sentence does not reflect is the evil of the crime.” Judge Lowy went on, “No sentence could.”

Ward finally shed tears earlier in the morning when her ex-boyfriend, Robert Anderson, begged Judge Lowy for justice for his youngest child.

The prosecution led by Kate MacDougall had hoped to convince jurors that Ward was guilty of first-degree murder.  McDougall said the Defendant showed “an utter lack of remorse” for what she had done to a helpless baby.

“This was not some 18-year-old with no support,” McDougall told Judge Lowy.  “She was, by her own statements, valedictorian of her class at Bishop Fenwick and a college graduate.”  The prosecutor went on to tell the court that Ward had two families — Anderson’s and her own — who would have taken the baby “in a heartbeat,” if only Ward had asked.

“She was by all accounts a precious baby filled with limitless potential,” the judge said.  “The defendant failed her.  She was selfish and weak.  She failed Jocelyn, she failed the child’s father, she failed her own family and she failed the whole community.”

         

Tennessee Kidnapping Suspect Remains in Custody

Tammy Renee Silas, 39, will remain in federal custody according to a court ruling yesterday in the kidnapping case involving 4-day-old Yahir Anthony Carillo in Nashville.

Police found Silas with the baby three days later at her home in Ardmore, Alabama, a mere 80 miles from the site of the vicious attack on the baby’s mother.

The baby was then reunited with his parents briefly, but was taken from them again by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.  The baby and his three siblings were placed into foster care when the DCS became concerned that the parents were trying to sell the baby.  DCS is not revealing those safety concerns at this time.  Maris Gurrola is reported to have started crying and shaking uncontrollably when she was told the children would be taken into state custody.  She described that pain as a greater pain than being physically stabbed by her attacker.

Police determined that Marie Gurrola and the baby’s father, Jose Carillo, were not involved in the crime, and the baby was reunited with his parents for the second time on Tuesday.  Family members report that the children are happy to be back with their mother and father.

Silas is represented by attorney Isaiah Grant who described his client as a “rather docile person” who did not want to make a public statement.  “My sense is she’s very concerned about the charge,” Grant said.  Prosecutor Phil Wehby declined to comment.

Investigators are trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together as they learn new details about Silas.  The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reports that Silas has used other names, such as Tammy Hernandez, and that more than one Social Security number has been linked to her.  Police records from California reflect a drug possession charge from 1989, a check forgery conviction in Ohio in 2002.  There is also a 2004 arrest in Nashville on a probation violation charge from the forgery case.

Silas has not been charged in the knife attack that left Maria Gurrola with multiple stab wounds and a collapsed lung.  According to Kristin Helm, spokesperson for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, no state charges are imminent in the attack or the kidnapping.  U.S. Magistrate John S. Bryant ordered Silas held until a bond hearing which was set for October 27.

The defense attorney has requested an interpreter for the case and informed the court that Silas needs an interpreter to fully understand the legal complexities even though she is reportedly bilingual.

A police sketch circulated after the attack described the attacker as a blonde white female who could speak Spanish.  Silas appeared in court with reddish brown hair pulled back into a bun.  A California warrant for Silas on a minor drug charge described her as brunette.  Investigators think she may have changed her appearance recently.

Gurrola has told investigators that after she was stabbed, her attacked made a phone call.  The attacker said in Spanish “the job is done” and that the mother was dying.  Rodriguez says he met Silas when they both lived in Nashville, but she was born in Tarrant County, Texas, where she has family.

         

School Girl Gives Birth After She Was Raped By Teenager

A school girl in Glasgow has given birth to a baby after she was raped by a teenage boy.

The court heard that the girl became pregnant while she was being looked after by 19-year-old Jason Middleton.

The girl decided to not terminate the pregnancy after she was abused by Middleton in September 2005. Although he initially denied raping the girl, DNA confirmed he was the father of the baby. She is now planning to adopt the child.

Prosecutor Jennifer Bain said: “This occurred while the accused was looking after the girl and they were alone together in a house.

“She gave birth to a daughter. She has tried to commit suicide on a numbers of occasions.”

Middleton’s Solicitor, Richard Goddard, said: “My client was deprived of a normal upbringing. He had no moral framework. He had almost non-existent parental guidance.”

         

“Shaken-Baby” Trial Begins

Anne-Marie Rooney has gone to trial, accused of shaking her 8-month-old baby to death.

Anne-Marie Rooney, 28, is denying all charges that she caused the death of her baby Joe. Rooney is a member of the traveling community and at the time of the incident, back in July 2007, she was staying at a farm in St Merryn, Cornwall.

According to prosecutors in the trial, baby Joe suffered serious head, eye and neck injuries after being shaken. He later died in the hospital. It is alleged that Rooney carried the injured baby into a neighbor’s caravan and asked her to “fix it.”

Rooney is claiming that the baby fell 32 in (81cm) from the bed to the floor and when she went to go pick him up he was red in the face and was crying. She said that she then shook him and he became “white and floppy” so she shook him gently again.

However, doctors for the prosecutor say that they found classic “shaken-baby” injuries, which included a brain injury that was several weeks old. There were no proven congenital disorders that would cause the injuries that the baby had.

The trial is set to continue the rest of the week.