Karen McCarron’s Lawyers Plan to Use Insanity Defense

Opening statements in the trial of Karen McCarron, who allegedly suffocated her three-year-old daughter with a plastic bag in May of 2006, will begin at 9am on Monday, January 7th, in Tazewell County Circuit Court for the jury of 12 people and three alternates. McCarron is charged with “two counts of first-degree murder, one count of obstructing justice and one count of concealment of a homicidal death and is free on $1 million bond.”

Today’s Peoria Journal-Star reports that defense attorneys Marc Wolfe and Steve Baker have entered an insanity defense, “which essentially says McCarron committed the crime but should not be held criminally responsible because of her mental state.” The prosecutors—-Assistant Tazewell County state’s attorneys Kevin Johnson and Kirk Schoenbein—are “expected to portray McCarron as a well-educated medical professional who was in control of her actions and will attempt to convince the jury that the former pathologist knew what she was doing”; they state that McCarron was “coherent and mentally stable” when she made a confession on video to police.   

“She’s not vulnerable, unsophisticated or weak,” Schoenbein said during a hearing last June on whether the confession would be admissible during the trial.

Wolfe argued that the confession should not be used because it wasn’t voluntary and because of her emotional and mental state.

Witnesses in the medical field were called to testify last May regarding McCarron’s mental state after the death.

Doctors from OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria said she was lucid, coherent and did not appear to have lost touch with reality after a suicide attempt the day after her daughter’s death. They also said she was not delusional and knew where she was.

Judge Stephen Kouri, who is presiding over the case, ruled that the video will be used during the trial.

Although Wolfe has entered a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, the legal definition of “insane” and what the jury will be allowed to consider won’t be released until the trial is under way.

There is a list of 40 potential witnesses for the trial, which is expected to last 2 1/2 weeks, but not all of them will be called.

Police officers will take the stand and tell the jury what happened when they encountered McCarron.

Police officers testified during a 2006 bond reduction hearing about McCarron’s description of suffocating her daughter while at her mother’s house. McCarron said it took about two minutes, and then she listened for a heartbeat and didn’t hear one, officers said.

She then drove the body back to her home, carried the body inside past her husband and put her daughter in bed.

She told police that after she drove the body back to her own house, she took a shower and returned to her mother’s house to retrieve the plastic bag and dispose of it.

A commenter identifying himself as “Katie’s uncle” left this comment on the Peoria Journal-Star’s story.

Karen will not be facing the death penalty if convicted. She will be be facing at least 20 years. The States attorney looked at the statute for what allows the death penalty, and decided it wasn’t a death penalty case. I don’t remember the details of the statute but I did agree with them when they explained it. A conviction for Karen will only mean prison time.

I simply want to know that Karen will not be able to be around the family with her evil presence. My worst fear is that her hired gun Dr. Glennmullen, will somehow confuse the jury to think she should not be responsible for this. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t imagine how that could be possible on these facts. Moreover, I do have faith in our jury system, and the prosecutors.

Its just that if, for whatever reason, she was found not guilty the whole family including perhaps even little Emily might have to deal with this evil person. Being a parent myself I can’t imagine having my daughters be required to ever have any sort of contact with such an evil person.