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IA Mom convicted of killing child

The intersection of mental illness and criminal acts interests me.
jc

Jury finds Kehoe guilty of first-degree murder
Lee Hermiston . Iowa City Press-Citizen . November 5, 2009

GRUNDY CENTER - Michelle Kehoe cried; her family sobbed; and her husband
Eugene Kehoe looked ahead as he had throughout the trial, emotionless, as
the verdict was read.

Guilty.

A jury of eight women and four men found Kehoe guilty of first-degree
murder, attempted murder and child endangerment causing serious injury on
Thursday.
Kehoe, 36, has now been convicted of killing her 2-year-old son, Seth, near
Littleton and attempting to kill her then 7-year-old son, Sean, before
cutting her own throat. The trio had left Coralville earlier that day to
visit her mother in Sumner but never arrived.

Kehoe will be sentenced on Dec. 15 in Independence.

It took jurors less than two hours to come back with the three guilty
verdicts. Kehoe and her family seemed to predict the outcome of the short
deliberations as they came back into the courtroom and cried before the jury
entered. Eugene Kehoe sat with his hands clasped and looked forward.

In a statement read by B.J. Franklin of the Cedar Rapids-based Horizon
Survivors Program, the family said the ordeal caused them, "a great
sadness."

"This situation has been extremely traumatic for all involved," Franklin
read.

The family said they will now focus their attention on Kehoe's surviving
son, Sean.

"There are no winners in this case," Franklin read. "Lives have been
irreparably damaged."

The family said in the statement they had no idea of the extent of Michelle's
mental illness and urged anyone with mental illness to get the help they
need.

Earlier in the day, the attorneys on each side of the case argued if Kehoe
was mentally capable of distinguishing right from wrong at the time of the
attacks.

In her closing statement, Kehoe's attorney, Andrea Dryer, said there was no
contesting that Kehoe committed the acts she is charged with. However, her
mental state at the time of the attacks should have prevented her from being
held accountable.

"She is not guilty by reason of insanity," Dryer said.

While the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is on the state,
proving Kehoe is insane by a preponderance, or majority, of the evidence is
the defense's burden.

In her closing statement, Dryer set out to discredit the testimony of the
state's rebuttal witness, psychiatrist Michael Taylor, who said Wednesday
that Kehoe was capable of telling right from wrong at the time of the
attacks. Dryer said Taylor stated his conclusions, but never told jurors how
he came to them.

"He simply conveyed he was disgusted. Period," Dryer said.

Dryer said statements Kehoe made to Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation
Special Agent Chris Callaway about the person who committed the acts
deserving to be convicted needed to be taken in context. The statements,
Dryer said, were made when Kehoe was still trying to save her surviving
family the shame of knowing she had attacked her children.

Dryer also reiterated what defense witnesses said earlier in the case about
Kehoe's reasons for attacking her children, attempting to kill herself and
blaming it on a fictious attacker: she would save her children the burden of
losing a parent and living with mental illness and they would go to heaven.
That was fixed, delusional thinking, Dryer said.

"There is absolutely no reason for this other than what she said," Dryer
said. "She wanted to die, she thought it was right. She thought it was right
for the kids, too."

Iowa Assistant Attorney General Andy Prosser countered Dryer's arguments in
his final statements to the jurors.

"Thinking it's right is not the same as losing the capacity to tell right
from wrong," Prosser said.

Legal insanity does not have a cause/effect relationship with Kehoe's mental
illness nor does the incomprehensibility of her acts mean Kehoe is legally
insane, Prosser said.

"Failing to comprehend why she did it does not mean she's legally insane,"
he added.

Prosser argued that statements Kehoe made shows she knew what she did was
wrong, as did her methodical and premeditated coverup of the acts. Prosser
also called into the question the analysis done by the defense's doctors,
who said she wanted to spare her family the shame of her acts and testified
about the guilt she felt after driving in to the Iowa River in Iowa City.

"These are feelings associated with comprehending right from wrong," Prosser
said.

And possibly the biggest indicator Kehoe knew what she was doing was wrong
was a statement she made to a doctor at the University of Iowa Hospitals
days after the attack.

"She says she knew at the time she was doing a bad or wrong thing," Prosser
quoted the doctor as saying.

After the trial, Prosser said he did not try to predict what the verdict
would be based on the short deliberation. He added that all homicide trials
are difficult and "this one had its issues that were very tragic."
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20091105/NEWS01/91105007/1079

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