momfromTN
07-17-2003, 05:31 AM
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA6OBSNXHD.html
TROY, N.Y. (AP) - A woman diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic was found guilty Wednesday of murder and attempted murder for drowning her 4-year-old son in a bathtub and trying to drown her 5-year-old, who escaped. Christine Wilhelm could face 40 years to life in prison on both counts when she is sentenced Aug. 27. Wilhelm had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the April 2002 drowning of Luke, 4, in their Hoosick Falls home and the near drowning of Peter, 5. During the trial, prosecutors said Wilhelm masked a hideous crime with her mental illness while the defense said Luke's drowning was a tragedy caused by her horrifying psychotic delusions. "I think it's the wrong verdict," said Wilhelm's public defender Jerome Frost. "I am brokenhearted for my client." In his closing arguments, Frost reminded the jury that Peter had testified his mother believed she was seeing werewolves the night she drowned Luke. Their mother lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the consequences of what she was doing or that it was wrong, Frost said. Prosecutors said Wilhelm's marriage was falling apart and she decided to kill the boys in their home near Vermont to punish her husband.Her husband, Kenneth Wilhelm, was working a night shift as a nurse at Albany Medical Center 30 miles away. He testified that his wife had stopped taking medication for her illness and her mental condition had deteriorated before the drowning. "She knew exactly what she was doing and she knew it was wrong. That was the issue from day one," District Attorney Trish DeAngelis said.
Wilhelm sat emotionless as the guilty verdicts were read. She is now receiving anti-psychotic medication and is on suicide watch at Rensselaer County Jail. Frost said he would appeal the conviction, saying testimony from the social workers who interviewed Wilhelm should have been excluded. A case worker testified that Wilhelm told her she knew what she was doing was wrong and tried to resuscitate Luke, but instead of calling for help, put him back in the tub and killed him. "She'll get nowhere near the help she'd get in a mental institution," Frost said. "What we have here is a societal exercise in scapegoating." Wilhelm had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in May 2001 in northern Florida, where the family lived at the time, after telling deputies she feared for her children's safety, according to Florida authorities. That mental evaluation occurred just one year after Luke, then 2, nearly drowned in his parents' pool in Live Oak, Fla., according to Florida authorities. The near-drowning was ruled accidental. The family moved to upstate New York in 2001 to be closer to her parents.
AP-ES-07-09-03 1419EDT
WHY DID THE FATHER LEAVE HER WITH THE KIDS??????
TROY, N.Y. (AP) - A woman diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic was found guilty Wednesday of murder and attempted murder for drowning her 4-year-old son in a bathtub and trying to drown her 5-year-old, who escaped. Christine Wilhelm could face 40 years to life in prison on both counts when she is sentenced Aug. 27. Wilhelm had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the April 2002 drowning of Luke, 4, in their Hoosick Falls home and the near drowning of Peter, 5. During the trial, prosecutors said Wilhelm masked a hideous crime with her mental illness while the defense said Luke's drowning was a tragedy caused by her horrifying psychotic delusions. "I think it's the wrong verdict," said Wilhelm's public defender Jerome Frost. "I am brokenhearted for my client." In his closing arguments, Frost reminded the jury that Peter had testified his mother believed she was seeing werewolves the night she drowned Luke. Their mother lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the consequences of what she was doing or that it was wrong, Frost said. Prosecutors said Wilhelm's marriage was falling apart and she decided to kill the boys in their home near Vermont to punish her husband.Her husband, Kenneth Wilhelm, was working a night shift as a nurse at Albany Medical Center 30 miles away. He testified that his wife had stopped taking medication for her illness and her mental condition had deteriorated before the drowning. "She knew exactly what she was doing and she knew it was wrong. That was the issue from day one," District Attorney Trish DeAngelis said.
Wilhelm sat emotionless as the guilty verdicts were read. She is now receiving anti-psychotic medication and is on suicide watch at Rensselaer County Jail. Frost said he would appeal the conviction, saying testimony from the social workers who interviewed Wilhelm should have been excluded. A case worker testified that Wilhelm told her she knew what she was doing was wrong and tried to resuscitate Luke, but instead of calling for help, put him back in the tub and killed him. "She'll get nowhere near the help she'd get in a mental institution," Frost said. "What we have here is a societal exercise in scapegoating." Wilhelm had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in May 2001 in northern Florida, where the family lived at the time, after telling deputies she feared for her children's safety, according to Florida authorities. That mental evaluation occurred just one year after Luke, then 2, nearly drowned in his parents' pool in Live Oak, Fla., according to Florida authorities. The near-drowning was ruled accidental. The family moved to upstate New York in 2001 to be closer to her parents.
AP-ES-07-09-03 1419EDT
WHY DID THE FATHER LEAVE HER WITH THE KIDS??????