Trial of Karen McCarron: Day 2
January 9, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Karen McCarron’s mother, brother, and her father-in-law testified on the second day of her trial, the January 9th Peoria Journal-Star reports. McCarron is charged with killing her three-year-old daughter, Katherine “Katie” McCarron, in May of 2006.
Michael McCarron, her father-in-law, testified that she called him from the hospital and said “‘”I hurt my baby……I thought my life would be perfect without her.’” Judy Rodhe and her husband have known Karen McCarron through a church function since 2005; Rohde testified that Karen McCarron called her a number of times on the day of Katie McCarron’s death and once from the hospital. Said Rohde: “‘She said ‘I did a very bad thing………. I killed Katie.’” According to prosecutors, Karen McCarron also confessed to her husband, Paul Mccarron, her mother, Erna Frank, and three times to police. Her mother and brother told “jurors about a history of mental health problems in the family”:
They said Karen McCarron’s father suffers from severe depression and had been prescribed medication by the same psychiatrist she had seen for her depression.
Karen McCarron had also seen a psychiatrist in the 1990s.
Her attorney, Marc Wolfe, who has entered a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity, said she has been a patient at the McFarland Mental Health Center since her daughter’s death.
But Assistant Tazewell County State’s Attorney Kirk Schoenbein said the woman signed herself into the facility. Schoenbein also said staff members have wanted to discharge her, but she has threatened suicide in order to stay.
Jurors will eventually hear from medical experts from both sides regarding her sanity.
Karen McCarron’s behavior Tuesday in the courtroom drew the attention of prosecutors. She paced in front of windows in the courtroom during breaks, at times whispering to herself and at other times crying without tears.
Schoenbein said “open displays of rocking” and “contorting her face” during key parts of testimony can distract the jury’s attention. He requested Judge Stephen Kouri to instruct the jury that her behavior is not considered evidence. Kouri took the request under advisement.
I have not been wanting to say too much about the trial and what happened in May of 2006. I don’t think anyone can read about this case without feeling sad, wrenched, and emotional. The fact that Katie’s death occurred right around the time of my son’s birthday, which is in the middle of May, and on Mother’s Day weekend—-enough said for right now.
I’m afraid I’m with Tommy Szasz, here; one can be right messed up in the head, but still legally sane when it comes to being responsible for one’s actions in court. IOW, she knew it was wrong, and did it anyway.
From today’s PJ Star:
Oh, and the reports that she felt badly about it afterwards, and made multiple confessions, are proof, I think, that she understood that she had done a wrong bad thing.
I wonder if she had been promised by some therapists that her daughter would be “mainstream” by kindergarten. We had one therapist try to tell us this, and I thought it was unethical. My husband and I don’t worry about “curing” anything, we just want the happiest life for our boys that’s possible.
It saddens me that the mom told some people she thought her daughter was “getting worse”. Our boys have frequent mini-regressions, but they always come out of them and keep moving forward.
Katie was a beautiful girl, and the whole thing is so sad.
We had a therapist who talked about whether Charlie was meeting, or not meeting, his “recovery goals.”
More testimony from Gale McCarron, Karen McCarron’s mother-in-law, from WFIE:
From HOI News:
Shame on ANSWERS for not seeing all these danger signs of Cured Or Dead. They come across it enough.
And more importantly, love to Katie’s surviving loved ones as they relive such a difficult time. There CAN’T be much harder than what they are going through.
I was deeply saddened by Katie’s death, as were many others. My instinct at the time was that Karen was a person who just couldn’t cope, who had unrealistic ideals, and who did, indeed, feel that autism was a blight on her life and “better dead than autistic”.
And “life would be perfect” without autism? Since when is life ever perfect, with or without autism?
Yes, I think she understood what she was doing was wrong. She probably did have her head full of bizarre ideas/thoughts, but she did know not to act on them. It’s heartbreaking, especially considering that Katie’s grandparents would have certainly stepped in if they had only been given the opportunity to do so.
Kassiane said,
“Shame on ANSWERS for not seeing all these danger signs of Cured Or Dead. They come across it enough.”
This does raise questions about the competency and adequacy of parent mentors, and organizational responsibility. I scanned the ANSWERS site and a few others and one thing that I noted as significantly missing is the presence of a licensed Psychologist, Licensed Family Therapist, or Social Worker. I have noted that many organizations rely on parents counseling parents and while we might have empathy, it is highly dependent on amateur opinion. If such professionals are affiliated and do not provide advice, that’s negligence.
KEVIN SAMPIER
GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
http://www.sj-r.com/News/stories/23317.asp
Reading this, it just is worse and worse…and hard not to have a visceral reaction of extreme anger. It is not much consolation, but I am glad that Katie had happy months in North Carolina with her dad, grandparents and the Mariposa program.
Worse and worse—-I do think Katie had a lot of happy months in North Carolina, at the school where she is still remembered, and with her dad and grandparents.
But reading this is too awful.