Posted by Stephen McCaskill on May 15th, 2008
Attorneys for Nixzaliz Santiago have stated they plan on claiming their client suffered not only from battered-women’s syndrome but also post traumatic stress syndrome, also known as PTSD. It was these conditions, along with a low IQ, stress from financial problems, and the recent miscarriage of her child, made her unable to fight or stop her controlling husband, Cesar Rodriguez.
This flies in the face of Rodriguez’s defense, which consisted of telling jurors that Rodriguez was a caring stepfather who was perhaps a bit overbearing, but still loved his children. In his defense, attorney Jeffrey Schwartz claimed that it was actually Nixzaliz Santiago who left Nixzmary Brown to die because she was jealous of the child.
Now her defense attorneys appear to be positioning themselves to claim that Rodriguez was the “bad” parent and that their client was so afraid of him that she stood idly by while he beat her daughter to death.
While the details of their defense are not known, I can already tell you that the idea of a mother being too afraid of a man to stop him from harming her children won’t sit well with most women. And using a defense of PTSD, when we have soldiers returning home from Iraq with real cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder probably won’t win her any fans either.
For those who are unfamiliar with the legal use of battered-women’s syndrome, this information can be found on Wikipedia:
This [battered-women’s syndrome] is a reference to any person who, because of constant and severe domestic violence usually involving physical abuse by a partner, becomes depressed and unable to take any independent action that would allow him or her to escape the abuse.
There is no consensus in the medical profession that such abuse results in a mental condition severe enough to excuse alleged offenders. Nevertheless, the law makes reference to a psychological condition (as ICD9 code 995.81 Battered person syndrome NEC [1] or otherwise included within DSM-IV as a sub-category of post-traumatic stress disorder), even though neither medical classification as currently drafted, includes the syndrome in the sense used by lawyers.
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Posted by Stephen McCaskill on May 13th, 2008
An old adage says that criminals always return to the scene of the crime. Today Sheila LaBarre did just that. She, along with the jury who will determine if she was insane at the time she killed two men, returned to her 115-acre farm in Epping, NH. Arriving in cars and two small yellow buses, they roamed through several sections of the farm. Specific locations included a drive by the Wal-Mart where employees have said they last saw Kenneth Countie, looking weak and bruised. They also saw the location where LaBarre’s jacket was found, with the blood of Micheal Deloge on it.
As jurors toured the farm, LaBarre turned to face the group of reporters that followed them to the farm. She was also seen crying, possibly as memories flooded her as she was forced to see the place which had been her home for years, possibly for the last time.
Lawyers for Sheila LaBarre also released information which they hope will convince the jury that she was indeed insane when she murdered Deloge, and two years later, Countie. They said that LaBarre believes she has died and returned to the earth and that she sees herself as an avenging angel. She also believes that both Deloge and Countie were pedophiles and victims of incest, and that they deserved to die. Among her other delusions are that there are people in the woods which surround the farm who are “out to get her.”
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Posted by Stephen McCaskill on April 30th, 2008
Two more updates have come down this week regarding the pending sanity trial of Sheila LaBarre. She has already pleaded guilty by reason of insanity to the murders of Kenneth Countie and Micheal Deloge, so all that remains is for a jury to decide if she was insane at the time of the two attacks.
Judge Tina Nadeau has ruled on a defense challenge of prosecution witness Mark Safarik, a former FBI profiler. He was due to tell jurors that LaBarre was sane, and in fact exhibited some of the classic signs of a serial killer when she committed the two murders, years apart. Among his evidence is the fact that after killing Micheal Deloge, she continued on with her life, eventually meeting Kenneth Countie on an online dating site and eventually having him move in with her. It was just a few months after he went to stay with her in Epping, NH that he went missing.
Judge Nadeau said in her ruling that while Safarik could be considered an expert witness regarding certain areas of the case, he was not an expert on her psychological condition at the time of the murders. She also did not believe LaBarre integrated herself back into society after she murdered Deloge, something which is one of the hallmarks of the FBI-recognized definition of a serial killer.
It was also revealed that along with bones and blood that was matched to Deloge and Countie, there were also toes discovered at the LaBarre home, which did not belong to either man. This points to the possibility there is yet another victim, but Judge Nadeau concluded that introducing this new evidence would prejudice the jury.
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