Brownwood's "Cat Juggler" and Insanity Pleas !

Posted on Sat, Jul. 29, 2006

People don't fully understand insanity
By NATHANIEL JONES
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Insanity is difficult to prove.
Of all the insanity defenses contested in court nationwide, only 15 percent are successfully argued, an expert said.
"The average person on the street doesn't fully understand insanity," said Phillip J. Resnick, professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve school of medicine in Cleveland. "To the average person, insanity doesn't make sense. They feel a person should be found guilty based on doing the act."
Keller mother Norma Jean Roberts, 50, was sentenced to 80 years in prison Friday for the 2005 smothering of her 11-year-old daughter. Roberts had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Still, the insanity defense has kept several Texas women accused of killing their children out of prison. Some of the mothers, such as Andrea Yates of Houston, Dena Schlosser of Plano and Deanna LaJune Laney of Tyler, cited religious overtones as the rationale for their actions
In each of these cases, defense attorneys used mental health records and family testimony in attempting to convince jurors that mental health problems contributed to their actions.
Under Texas law, jurors must decide if a defendant seeking the insanity defense knew the wrongfulness of the act.
"The insanity defense is to save someone from being punished for doing something they didn't know was wrong," said Robert Udashen, who successfully argued that Plano mother Lisa Diaz was insane when she drowned her 5-year-old daughter in 2003. "Punishing them doesn't stop another person from committing the same crime."
Jurors may have to weigh the insanity defense for Mansfield mother Valeria Maxon, 32, who has been charged with capital murder in the drowning death of her 1-year-old son, Alex, last month in the family's backyard hot tub.
Neighbors in the Maxons' Walnut Creek Estates have said Alex was having problems crawling and lifting his head.
They have said that the Maxons were concerned with Alex's health and that Valeria Maxon believed her son's problems were her fault.
Prosecutor Mitch Poe, said the Maxon investigation was slow "and an uphill climb for the police and for our office."
Poe wouldn't elaborate on the difficulties. He said it would be up to a jury to determine if Maxon was insane.
Mothers who kill their children
Juries have returned verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity in several recent trials involving women accused of killing their children. In those cases, defense attorneys have made strong arguments about the role that mental illness and sometimes religious fervor played in the crimes. Still, experts say that only about 15 percent of defendants who invoke the insanity defense are found not guilty. On Friday, jurors rejected the insanity defense in the case of Norma Jean Roberts of Keller.
Not guilty, insane
Andrea Yates, Houston
Crime: Drowning her five children in a bathtub
Verdict: Not guilty by reason of insanity
In June 2001, Yates drowned her five children, ages 6 months to 7 years old, at her Houston-area home. Yates claimed that she was saving her children's souls. In her first trial, she was sentenced to life in prison, but the conviction was overturned because of erroneous testimony from a prosecution witness. Yates' defense attorney said she had a long history of mental illness, including four hospitalizations and two suicide attempts.
Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday. She is to be sent to the maximum-security North Texas State Hospital in Vernon.
Dena Schlosser, Plano
Crime: Killing her 10-month-old daughter by cutting off her arms.
Verdict: Not guilty by reason of insanity
In November 2004, Schlosser cut off her daughter Margaret's arms with a 10-inch butcher knife, saying she was sacrificing her baby to God. Schlosser's attorneys said she suffered from post-partum depression and "hyperreligious" behavior. Schlosser also was sent to the state hospital in Vernon.
Deanna LaJune Laney, Tyler
Crime: Beating her two sons to death.
Verdict: Not guilty by reason of insanity
Laney was charged with capital murder in May 2003 for crushing her sons' heads with stones. She said God told her to kill her sons -- Joshua, 8, and Luke, 6. Her third son, Aaron, was also injured. Psychiatric experts testified that Laney was mentally ill during the attacks.
Lisa Diaz, Plano
Crime: Drowning her two daughters
Verdict: Diaz was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2003 death of 5-year-old Brianna. She has not been tried for the death of 3-year-old Kamryn. Diaz told doctors and psychologists that her daughters had illnesses such as lupus and ringworm. Mental health experts testified that the mother was severely depressed and delusional.
Guilty, sentenced to prison
Norma Jean Roberts, Keller
Crime: Roberts smothered her 11-year-old daughter.
Verdict: Guilty, sentenced Friday to 80 years in prison
Roberts smothered her daughter Kelsey in August 2005. During the trial, defense attorneys said Roberts was insane when she attacked her daughter, but prosecutors argued that Roberts was trying to get even with her husband as the couple went through a divorce last year.
Trial not yet scheduled
Valeria Maxon, Mansfield
Crime: Maxon is suspected of drowning her 1-year-old son June 30.
Verdict: A trial date has not been set.
Valeria Maxon is accused of drowning her son in the family's backyard hot tub. Michael Maxon, Valeria's husband, told police his wife had been depressed and was taking prescription antidepressants.

-- Compiled by Heather Ann White
SOURCE: Star-Telegram archives

Nathaniel Jones, 817-548-5414 njones@star-telegram.com

source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/crime_courts/15152749.htm

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What's a Brownbwood "Cat Juggler" to do with this: " Still, the insanity defense has kept several Texas women accused of killing their children out of prison. Some of the mothers, such as Andrea Yates of Houston, Dena Schlosser of Plano and Deanna LaJune Laney of Tyler, cited religious overtones as the rationale for their actions". Would the Brownwood "Cat Juggler" acknowledge how the men ( husbands & preachers ) involved in these cases appear to escape accepting any resposnibility for the conditions which led to the womens actions ?