UPDATE: Julie Schenecker Found GUILTY Of Murdering Her 2 Teenage Children, Daughter Calyx and Son Beau ~ Sentenced To Mandatory Life In Prison

Hippy, too funny reference your NG insinuation...

I agree..mentally ill but NOT insane.

This was a carefully planned out execution.

Anna M. Phillips, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 6, 2014

TAMPA — "If you're wondering why I decided to take out the kids, it's to protect them," Julie Schenecker, the New Tampa mother accused of murdering her children, wrote in her notebook.

On Tuesday, the second day of her trial, Schenecker's attorney's took what looked to be the prosecution's weapon — her journal entries — and used them to make their case. New passages, written in the hours after Schenecker shot her children, and skipped over by the prosecution, revealed her warped reasoning.

Driven to thoughts of suicide by her depression and bipolar disorder, Schenecker wrote that she feared the same fate would befall her children.

"Kids of suicidal parents tend to commit suicide themselves," she wrote in her spiral notebook "Calyx has talked about suicide since she was 12."

"I believe that I have saved them from the pain."

Mothers who murder their children represent a small and extreme portion of the criminal population, but within that group, Schenecker's rationale is not unusual. Experts on this demographic say that suicide is often a major component, coupled with a mother's desire to "save" her children by taking them with her.

There have also been cases of mothers, such as Andrea Yates, who believe they are spiritually or psychology damned and must save their children from themselves.

In 2001, when she was charged with drowning her five children, Yates told police that Satan was inside of her. She'd killed her children, she explained, in an attempt to keep them from going to hell.

A jury in Houston found Yates not guilty by reason of insanity, the same defense Schenecker's attorneys are using.

"It was my time to go. Heaven's waiting for me, for I have done my job on this earth," Schenecker wrote in her notebook after she shot each child once in the head and once in the mouth. "We're going home today, take us home Lord."

Read aloud in court by a Tampa police crime scene technician, some of Schenecker's entries were garbled and illegible. One page contained nothing but the words: "You're a failure."

On another page, she scribbled an apology to her husband, Army Col. Parker Schenecker. On Jan. 27, 2011, the day she's believed to have killed her children at the family's New Tampa home, he was in the Middle East for a military deployment.

The couple got divorced and Parker Schenecker retired from the military after their 16-year-old daughter Calyx and son Beau, 13, were killed.

"Parker, I'm sorry, so sorry, I don't know what to say, but I sensed divorced was inevitable," Schenecker, 53, wrote. "But I can't live alone."

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is   
She Didn't kill herself. She fell asleep after killing them. WTH?? If she was so miserable, she should have bought that gun for herself and let her kids live.

Could not agree more.

A reporter on HLN who is in the courtroom said that 2 of the male jurors look at her a lot and they look angry.

There's a lot of horrific evidence they won't show on TV. I simply cannot Fathom killing your kids..and shooting them not only in the head but in the mouth? IMHO, she had NO intention of taking her own life. I think she did it b/c her husband was divorcing her.

I hereby re-cant my comment on page 1 that 'part of me feels sorry for her'.

Anna M. Phillips, Times Staff Writer
Friday, May 9, 2014 6:00am

TAMPA – In the months leading up to the day she killed her two teenage children, Julie Schenecker's depression was worsening, her psychiatrist testified on Friday.

By December 2010, a month before she drove to an Oldsmar gun store and bought a revolver, she was having suicidal thoughts. Her University of South Florida psychiatrist, Dr. Demian Obregon, considered hospitalizing her under the Baker Act, a state law that permits someone who is a threat to themselves or others to be committed involuntarily.

But Obregon never invoked the law. And Schenecker made sure that he didn't talk to her then-husband about her troubles by refusing to waive her privacy rights.

She continued to take Lithium and Lamotrigine, another mood stabilizer, and her depression only progressed.

On Jan. 27, 2011, approximately five months after she had begun seeing Obregon, Schenecker shot her 16-year-old daughter Calyx and 13-year-old son Beau. Each child received the same treatment: one bullet to the head, and one to the mouth. Schenecker had complained they were "mouthy."

She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder years earlier, and had been seeing psychiatrists throughout her adult life. In July 2010, she became Obregon's patient, a hand-me-down from another resident who passed her to him, a third-year resident at the time.

Obregon told the jury Friday that he'd seen Schenecker about every two weeks for 20 minutes at a time. Occasionally their sessions lasted a little longer, but not by much, and had to refer to her medical file repeatedly to remember the milestones in her decline.

In September, he put her on Lithium, and he kept her on several other prescription drugs to reduce her side effects from the anti-psychotics. She complained that the pills were worsening her tardive dyskinesia. The condition caused her to shake and lose sleep, and was a direct result of taking anti-psychotics and then, at one point, going off them cold turkey.

In most of their sessions, Schenecker made "intense eye contact," Obregon said. It was like she was staring at him, he said. At the time, he thought this might have been typical of her.

"Hindsight is 20/20," he said.

Shortly before 3 p.m. Friday, Schenecker interrupted the proceedings with an outburst. She stood up suddenly and yelled at her doctor.

"You told me two drinks a day, two oxys a day," she said, referring to painkillers.

Circuit Judge Emmett Battles sent jurors out of the courtroom, then told Schenecker she would be "appropriately restrained" if there is another outburst. Schenecker then cried while talking to one of her attorneys, who assured Battles there would be no more disruptions.

Earlier in the day, her housekeeper testified that Schenecker was a different woman in late 2010 when she returned from a stint in rehab.

Michelle Frisco, who cleaned the Scheneckers' house from the time they moved to Tampa up until their two children were killed, said she noticed abrupt changes in Schenecker's behavior.

It was November 2010 and Schenecker had just come home from rehab. Though she normally ran around and did errands, now Schenecker was staying in bed more. There were a couple of times, Frisco said, when she would get fully dressed and crawl back into bed.

"She didn't seem like she was her normal self," Frisco said.

While cleaning the master bedroom, Frisco said she noticed there were more pill bottles around than there had been before, especially when Schenecker's then-husband, former Army Col. Parker Schenecker, was away.

She recalled how Julie Schenecker had lashed out at her mother-in-law one day, when the older woman sent Calyx to ask her to get of bed so Frisco could clean the bedroom.

"I'll get out of bed when that b---- leaves," Schenecker told Calyx, according to the testimony.

After two years of working for Schenecker, Frisco said they had established a friendly rapport. They talked about their children and Schenecker sometimes confided in the house cleaner, telling her that she sometime hid her drinking from her husband and would drink more when he wasn't present.

On Jan. 26, 2011, the day before Schenecker killed her two teenage children, Frisco came to clean house. She found the front door locked, she said, which was unusual. When she got inside, Schenecker told her she was going to take a shower and get dressed. Frisco found her lying on her bed, fully clothed, with her eyes closed.

Prosecutor Jay Pruner pointed out that Schenecker had the wherewithal that day to write Frisco a check and leave it for her.

It was a typical check, made out in steady penmanship. And she had also been driving the kids to school as part of a long-standing carpool.

"It takes concentration and attention to drive safely," he said.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Tampa, FL -- It's the defense's turn in the murder trial of Julie Schenecker, the New Tampa woman accused of murdering her two teenage children.

Her lawyers say Schenecker was legally insane when she shot and killed 16-year-old Calyx and 13-year-old Beau for being -- in her words -- too "mouthy."

The defense first wanted to hear more about the 53-year-old's behavior by calling the Schenecker family's cleaning lady to the stand.

Michelle Frisco, 43, says she'd been cleaning the Schenecker family's house since they moved into their New Tampa home and that she saw changes in Julie Schenecker's behavior in the months leading up to the murders.

Frisco says Schenecker had confided in her that she had gone through rehab, was diagnosed bipolar, and that she was taking medication.

Schenecker, says Frisco, also told her that her son Beau was becoming more disrespectful, like his sister Calyx. She says Schenecker would often stay in bed while the house was being cleaned.

Around the holidays preceding the murders, Frisco says Parker Schenecker's mother, Nancy had come to help around the house. Julie Schenecker was in bed that day. Nancy reportedly asked Calyx to have her mother get out of bed, so that Frisco could get into the bedroom to clean.

"You said there was a comment made about Nancy being in the home. What did she say?" asked Schenecker's defense lawyer.

"Nancy had asked Calyx to go ask Julie to get up, that I needed to get in there to clean," said Frisco, "and Julie said that she wasn't going to get up until that b**** left," referring to her mother-in-law.

Calyx, says Frisco, simply shook her head and left the room.

Frisco also testified that Schenecker had admitted to drinking more alcohol when her husband Col. Parker Schenecker was out of town deployed, and that she would also drink at the "World of Beer" establishment nearby.

Defense lawyers appeared to try to make it sound like Parker Schenecker was being controlling, but Frisco later admitted there was another reason.

"The defendant admitted to you, did she not, that Parker had a concern about her drinking and driving the kids?"

"Yes," answered Frisco.

"And that's what upset Parker Schenecker about the drinking?"

"Yes."

"She told you that, didn't she?"

"Yes."

When Frisco ended her testimony, defense attorneys called Demian Obregon, a USF psychiatrist, to the stand. Obregon treated Schenecker, who had been diagnosed as bipolar and having chronic mental illness.

He says she had mild "lip-smacking," a side-effect of medication for mood disorders. Obregon says she stopped taking the medication to avoid the lip-smacking and that made things worse.

He says her condition and medications also led her to have leg-jerking, which Schenecker told her had led to insomnia.

In August 2010 he says she began to express vague suicidal thoughts, but when asked about it, said it was against her religion to take her own life.

Schenecker's symptoms fluctuated a bit over the next two months, said Obregon. His weekly sessions with her would typically last about 20 minutes.

Then in November, Obregon says he had no notes to which he could refer. Despite her condition, he says they apparently went the whole month without seeing Schenecker.

On Dec. 1st 2010, Schenecker called to say she needed to see them, and said she had scheduling conflicts that had kept her from coming-in. An appointment two days later indicated her conditions had worsened.

On December 10th, one week later, Obregon's notes show Schenecker had deeper feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.

He says she expressed depressive symptoms severe enough that for the first time Obregon consider "Baker Acting" Schenecker, meaning he believed she might pose a risk to herself or others.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

video of outburst and video of Schenecker purchasing the gun above.

Defense psychologist: Schenecker 'without a doubt' insane during killings
Anna M. Phillips, Times Staff Writer
Monday, May 12, 2014 6:41am

TAMPA – The first in what's expected to be a series of mental health experts in the Julie Schenecker trial testified Monday, delivering her finding in the case of the New Tampa mom accused of murdering her children.

Schenecker, 53, was insane when she shot her teens, said defense witness Dr. Eldra Solomon, a clinical psychologist based in Tampa.

"I think without a doubt that she was insane at the time of the shooting and during the week prior to the shooting," Solomon told the jury. "Even psychopaths don't kill their own children."       

Under tough questioning from the prosecution, Solomon allowed that there could be exceptions — there might be the rare murderous mother in the world. But as a rule, she said, humans are "genetically programmed to protect our children." Someone overriding that instinct to the point of killing the children would be "very, very mentally ill," she said. Once again, "mentally ill and 'insane' are NOT one in the same!!

Solomon said she had interviewed Schenecker nine times since she was arrested Jan. 28, 2011, after son Beau, 13, and daughter Calyx, 16, where killed.

The first time, days after the children were killed, Schenecker was at Tampa General Hospital in detox after she'd tried to overdose on her mood stabilizing medication and a blood thinner.

Later, Solomon evaluated Schenecker at the Falkenburg Road Jail, where she was under suicide watch and was made to wear a "suicide gown."

"The first time I saw her, she was still in shock and it was really hard to have a conversation," Solomon said. But after she'd spent upwards of 20 hours with Schenecker, she emerged with a picture of the woman's profound mental illness.

As an adolescent, Schenecker had begun to exhibit signs of being mentally ill. She'd been sexually molested as a young child by a man who lived in her neighborhood and lured little girls with hand-crafted dollhouse furniture. Schenecker had testified in the trial against him, Solomon said, a "traumatic" experience.

By the time she reached adulthood, Schenecker had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She'd tried to hide the manic highs and lows during a career in the Army, disguising her condition by taking time off and spending days holed up in hotels. In 2001, she spent nine months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as part of National Institute of Health study.

Over the years, Schenecker harbored a number of delusions, Solomon said. While at Walter Reed, she became convinced that she had a brain tumor that was causing her depression. Scans were done, but the fear was unfounded, Solomon said.

Schenecker also believed that Calyx had inherited her bipolar disorder and that Beau was at risk of being sexually assaulted.

At one point in 2009, she told her psychiatrist that she wanted to steal the doctor's comb and use the DNA on it to impregnate herself.

On the Saturday before she killed her children, Schenecker woke up with thoughts of escape, Solomon said. She would commit suicide and take her children to heaven with her, saving all of them from the pain of mental illness.

"That is psychotic thinking," Solomon said.

Attorneys for Schenecker are arguing that she was insane at the time of the killings. But prosecutors say she knew what she was doing — that she'd planned the attack — and should spend life in prison.

Schenecker is charged with two counts of first degree murder, which carry a mandatory life sentence. If a jury finds her not guilty by reason of insanity, she would likely be placed in a state psychiatric facility and periodically reevaluated.

Cases built around the insanity defense — an infrequently used defense, and one that's seldom successful — typically become battles of the experts.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Did Schenecker psychologist prove insanity?
By Matthew Zarrell
updated 8:55 AM EDT, Tue May 13, 2014

A defense psychologist testified Monday that Julie Schenecker was legally insane when she killed her children, but prosecutors made key points on cross examination that could be the difference.

Schenecker, 53, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the 2011 shooting deaths of her children at their Tampa, Florida home. She faces life in prison if convicted.

Jurors will decide whether Schenecker knowingly plotted to kill her children or was legally insane at the time, unable to tell right from wrong.

Key moments from Monday’s testimony:

1.    Dr. Eldra Solomon was the defense psychologist who examined and interviewed Schenecker multiple times following her arrest and while she was in jail awaiting trial. Dr. Solomon described Schenecker’s bipolar disorder with psychotic features, saying that Schenecker’s mental illness became obvious to others when she was much younger.

2.    Dr. Solomon told the jury in detail about some of Schenecker’s delusional thinking, including Schenecker’s belief that her son Beau was in danger of being sexually abused and that her daughter Calyx was bipolar when there was no evidence to suggest either belief was remotely true. Schenecker felt that she could not commit suicide and leave her children behind to that environment, but believed that if she took the children with her, then all then of them would live together in heaven with God and be much happier.

3.    Schenecker was hospitalized for nine months in 2001 at the Walter Reed Medical Center as part of a National Institute of Health study for patients suffering from depression. Dr. Solomon testified that Schenecker believed she had a tumor in her brain causing her depression, which the expert explained was another delusion. In another example of Schenecker’s delusional thinking, in July 2009 Schenecker suddenly had a desire to take her psychiatrist’s comb and use the DNA to impregnate herself with the psychiatrist’s child.

4.   Schenecker told Dr. Solomon that she was very upset she could not go to the children’s funeral and wanted to attend desperately. Schenecker went so far as to suggest she could’ve colored her hair and sat in the back at the funeral and people would not recognize her.

5.    The defense psychologist explained how Schenecker’s belief that Beau would be sexually abused comes from Schenecker’s own experience as a sexual abuse victim when she was a child. Dr. Solomon told the jury how when Schenecker was about 7 years old, she was sexually molested by a neighbor who would make little girls doll houses in his garage. Schenecker testified at the trial and the psychologist explained how traumatic it was for Schenecker and caused her to constantly worry about her children when she was older.

6.   Schenecker was angry at herself and called herself a failure for not being able to commit suicide. Schenecker told Dr. Solomon after she took the pills the night of the shootings she didn’t wake up until the next morning and was toxic from the medication and foggy, telling the shrink she failed again. Journal entries from Schenecker’s journal showed an entry reading simply “You’re a failure”, the entry was written after the shootings according to Schenecker.   

7.    Dr. Solomon rendered her opinion that Schenecker was insane at the time of the shooting and during the week prior to the shooting. Dr. Solomon reasoned that sane people don’t shoot their children and given Schenecker’s mental health history leading up to the shootings, she felt Schenecker was legally insane when she killed her 2 children.

8.    On cross examination, the state focused on Schenecker’s history with alcohol, and particularly Schenecker’s unwillingness to curtail her drinking, culminating in a visit to a rehab facility for alcohol just 2 months before the shootings. In multiple medical reports, Schenecker was not only ambivalent about her alcohol use, but she was not interested in stopping or calming down the amount she was drinking.

9.    On direct examination, Dr. Solomon testified that Schenecker symptoms were exacerbated in the six months leading up to the shootings.  In response, prosecutors on cross examination went point by point through multiple visits Schenecker had with doctors in that time period where they report NO suicidal or homicidal ideations and no mood or psychotic symptoms as was suggested during defense questioning.

10. State attorneys spent much of their time with Dr. Solomon discussing Schenecker’s visit to the rehab facility in November 2010. While at the facility Schenecker was evaluated and doctors there determined Schenecker was NOT psychotic. In addition, documents showed Schenecker minimized her alcohol use and indicated to doctors that she was going to drink if she wanted to, and she did not want to be in the rehabilitation facility in the first place. Husband Parker Schenecker made her go.

11. While jurors have heard about Schenecker’s two previous suicide attempts, both by overdose, what they did not know until today was that there is no documented history of those suicide attempts. Dr. Solomon told the jury that there is no record of Schenecker ever attempting suicide and no record of Schenecker being forcibly hospitalized under Florida’s Baker Act

12. Prosecutors attempted to show the jury that Schenecker’s intent was for her husband Parker Schenecker to find the bodies. During Dr. Solomon’s cross-examination, prosecutor’s asked about the post-it notes left by Schenecker on her front door the morning after the shootings. In the note, Schenecker writes that they are going to New York City and will be back on Tuesday. Dr. Solomon told jurors that Schenecker did not want the carpool she was a part of to be looking for her at least until Tuesday. Tuesday was when Parker Schenecker was to return home and would be the first person inside the house after the shootings, likely being the one to discover his children’s bodies.

13. Schenecker told Dr. Solomon that when she pulled the gun out on Beau as they were driving to his soccer practice, Beau got upset and yelled at Schenecker to put the gun away, so Schenecker told her son that the gun was a toy gun. Schenecker shot her son to death soon after.

14. Schenecker’s animosity towards her husband took center stage as cross-examination progressed, with Dr. Solomon detailing for jurors multiple examples of how Schenecker felt her husband was getting set to divorce her and she was being pushed out of the family. Dr. Solomon cites an email Schenecker claims was going around the family, an email that Schenecker was never allowed to see, that allegedly detailed Parker Schenecker’s plans for divorce. When Dr. Solomon first met Schenecker shortly after her arrest at the hospital, Schenecker was hurt and angry at her husband.

15. In a dramatic moment, prosecutors question Dr. Solomon about Schenecker’s awareness of what she was doing while purchasing the gun at the Lock N’ Load gun shop. Dr. Solomon testified that Schenecker had an explanation as to why she lied to the gun store owner about her reasoning for purchasing the gun. When Schenecker went to buy the gun five days before the shootings, she told the store clerk and owner there were recent home invasions in her neighborhood and she was worried about protecting her family. Schenecker told Dr. Solomon that she was well aware that if she told the store owner the truth about why she wanted the gun, that they would not have sold the gun to her. Does that prove Schenecker knew right from wrong and was not legally insane at the time of the crime?

16. In really hitting the point home, prosecutors had Dr. Solomon go through Schenecker’s journal entries, specifically the entries where Schenecker apologizes to her husband, says this is the worst thing she has ever done, about her plan for the “Saturday Massacre” and how the “evil” would start on Thursday, the day of the shootings. Schenecker told Dr. Solomon she was excited to execute her plan but did not tell a soul because they would thwart her plan somehow.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

 

By CRIMESIDER STAFF AP May 13, 2014, 3:33 PM
Fla. military mom's ex-husband testifies at murder trial

TAMPA, Fla. - The Army officer ex-husband of a woman accused of killing their two teenagers while he was deployed told a jury on Tuesday that her mental illness was a constant "drum beat" in their 20-year marriage.

Col. Parker Schenecker and Julie Schenecker, 53, were still married in January of 2011, when police say she shot and killed their 16-year-old daughter Calyx and their 13-year-old son Beau in the family's home. The couple divorced after the deaths.

Schenecker is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. The state is not seeking the death penalty and contends Schenecker knew right from wrong when she bought a gun and shot her children.

Parker Schenecker, 51, testified for the defense, then was cross-examined by prosecutors, with testimony lasting more than four hours.

He told the jury about how he met Julie in the military in 1990. He was a young officer and she was a military interrogator in the Army. They met when she coached his volleyball team and he said he was attracted to her athleticism and her "ability to stand up and take notice of things, take responsibility of things."

A couple years later, the two married in Arizona, where he was then stationed, and she left the military when she had about 10 years of tenure. Their marriage was marked with worldwide travel, both before and after Julie gave birth to their two children. They lived in Hawaii, Maryland, Virginia and, several times, in Germany, as Parker rose through the Army ranks.

Although he noticed that his wife "had some lower energy" and suffered from depression at the beginning of their marriage, Schenecker said she was a good mother to the children when they were born.

As the years went on, she visited doctors around the world and even entered into a nine-month clinical trial for her depression at the National Institute of Mental Health. Parker Schenecker said he received updates about her condition during that treatment, but otherwise, she wouldn't allow him access to her mental health records or her doctors.

At one point, he emailed his wife and asked if she would allow him access to her medical file and doctor.

"Hell no!" she wrote. "Sorry about your luck."

Defense attorneys have said that besides bipolar disorder with psychotic features, the defendant suffered from depression.

The family moved to Tampa in 2007, and when Calyx was leaving middle school and going into high school, she started to have problems with her mother, Parker Schenecker testified.

In November of 2010, months before the killings, Julie Schenecker was in a car crash. Parker thought his wife had been drinking and told her she needed to be in rehab; Julie agreed. When she arrived home after Thanksgiving, Julie Schenecker took to her bed for weeks and Parker's mother came to help care for the kids.

Parker Schenecker said he communicated with his wife at that point mostly through email due to his schedule as a colonel at U.S. Central Command, which is located in Tampa. He said he that he stressed to his wife that she needed to "re-assimilate" back into the family, and Julie assured him she would once his mother left, he testified.

He told her that the kids were afraid to have her drive them in the car following the accident - and that he agreed she shouldn't drive them.

"'I MUST protect them, they are telling me they feel unsafe,'" he wrote.

In mid-December, when Parker Schenecker's mother went home, Julie began driving the kids to and from school and cooking dinner.

Parker Schenecker testified that over the course of their marriage, Julie had talked about suicide.

"She had mentioned suicide but not that she was planning on acting on it," he said, of her behavior in the months before their children were killed while he was in the Middle East on a 10-day deployment in late January of 2011. "My hope was that her energy was too low to [go through with it]."

If convicted, Julie Schenecker would receive a life sentence. If acquitted by reason of insanity, she would be committed to a hospital until she is no longer a danger to herself or others.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The defense just rested and tomorrow the State w/rebut. Schenecker just told the judge she will NOT testify on her behalf. W/post the videos.

Prosecution experts: Julie Schenecker understood killing her kids was wrong
Anna M. Phillips, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 6:00am

TAMPA — The bar for criminal insanity is high in Florida, and Julie Schenecker, the New Tampa woman accused of killing her teenage children in 2011, hasn't met it, three mental health experts testified Wednesday.

Retained by the prosecution, they trooped into the courtroom one after the other to refute testimony from the three experts hired by defense attorneys. Just as those experts were certain that Schenecker was having a psychotic episode on Jan. 27, 2011, when she killed her children, this set was equally assured that she was in control of her actions.

"I don't think this is a close call," said Randy Otto, a psychologist who teaches at the University of South Florida. "Despite the fact she was experiencing severe mental illness, she did know that she was killing her children … and she did know that that was wrong."

Closing arguments are expected to begin this morning and the case is expected to go to jurors shortly thereafter.

Attorneys for Schenecker, 53, are waging an insanity defense, an infrequently used and rarely successful tactic that requires jurors to believe that because of her mental disorder, she couldn't distinguish right from wrong. By the time court came to an end Wednesday, jurors had heard from a total of six psychologists and psychiatrists, all of whom had spent hours with Schenecker and her writings but came away with divergent conclusions.

If jurors find Schenecker guilty as charged of two counts of first-degree murder, she will face a mandatory life sentence. If they side with the defense, she would likely spend years, if not the rest of her life, in a Florida psychiatric facility.

As they flipped through the armfuls of documents they'd brought with them to court Wednesday, the experts for the prosecution explained how they'd reached the same conclusion: Though she was deeply depressed and struggling with the worsening effects of her bipolar disorder, she was not so sick as to be legally insane.

In the days before she killed her children, Schenecker wrote in her spiral-bound notebook that she was planning "a Saturday massacre." She complained that her daughter had called her an "evil soul." She wrote: "The evil starts Thursday."

After she'd shot each teenager, once in the head, and once in the mouth, she picked up her pen again, writing an apology to her husband and saying she planned to commit suicide. "Beau went first, Calyx went second, I sure as hell would like to go third."
She should have stabbed herself to death with that pen!!

To forensic psychiatrist Dr. Donald Taylor, Schenecker's language couldn't have made her intentions plainer.

"She knew beforehand that what she was going to do would be considered wrong, as well as afterward," he told the jury.

Schenecker also lied to the clerk at the gun store in Oldsmar, where she purchased a revolver and ammunition several days before the killing. She told the man at the counter that she needed the gun for self-defense, as there had been several recent break-ins in her Tampa Palms neighborhood. Later, after she used the gun, she left Post-it notes on the front of her house telling people she and her family had gone to New York. Experts said her repeated attempts to deceive people were proof that she knew killing her children was not only morally wrong, it was also illegal.

Earlier this week, the mental health experts retained by the defense said that Schenecker believed she was killing her children to protect them. She thought her daughter was starting to show signs of bipolar disorder, though there was no evidence to support that. And she told doctors who interviewed her that she was convinced her son was going to be sexually molested, as she'd been when she was 6 years old. They were all going to heaven, she told police. After shooting her daughter, she'd tried to manipulate the girl's mouth to form a smile.
That is just SICK!!

Countering their claims Wednesday, Otto told jurors that Schenecker was not psychotic on the day of the killings: "I'm not aware of any credible professional authority that says, essentially, every person who kills his or her children is insane," he said.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

May 15, 2014 at 07:57 PM


Julie Schenecker wipes her eyes after the jury had left the courtroom after delivering their verdict.

TAMPA — It took a week to pick a jury and nearly two weeks for the prosecution and defense to present their case, but a jury needed only about two hours to find Julie Schenecker guilty of murdering her two teenage children in January 2011.

Authorities say Schenecker shot her children, Calyx, 16, and Beau, 13, in the head at their New Tampa home. She reportedly told police the kids had been “mouthy.”

The defense had sought a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds Schenecker suffered from bipolar disorder with psychotic features and didn't know what she was doing or didn't understand that it was wrong.

Prosecutors had not disputed that Schenecker had a history of mental illness but said she was not legally insane at the time she shot her children to death.

Circuit Judge Emmet Lamar Battles sentenced Schenecker to life in prison without parole for each count, to be served concurrently.

Before the sentence, Schenecker made an emotional statement, apologizing for killing her children and telling Battles, “I accept your sentence.”

She thanked her attorneys, and complimented the judge on how he ran the courtroom. She also complimented the American judicial system: “We don't lash our women 125 times for driving when they shouldn't.”

She ended her statement saying she knows her children are in Heaven.

“I want people to try to find comfort ... that they are in no pain, that they are alive and enjoying everything and anything Heaven has to offer.”

Outside the court, Parker Schenecker, the children's father, said his priority was to give voice to his children during the trial and the verdict gives his family a chance to move forward.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Jury: Julie Schenecker guilty of first-degree murder

TAMPA — Less than two hours after getting the case, jurors Thursday evening found Julie Schenecker guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for killing her children, Beau, 13, and Calyx, 16.

She faces life in prison.

In a tearful speech to the court after the verdict, Schenecker acknowledged the killings, declaring: "I was there."

"I apologize. I apologize to everyone in this courtroom ... the lives I have destroyed. I hope they can collect themselves as best as possible, all of us and not just this courtroom.

"Anybody who knew our family, who knew Beau, our children's friends, teachers, coaches. Our relatives, aunts, cousins, grandparents, uncles, nieces, nephews, everyone has been so deeply affected ....

"I understand that there are people who are affected by this who may have just read about it in the paper or maybe had a child looked at her mommy and said, "Mommy, are you going to shoot me?' ...

"I know I shot my son and daughter. I don't know why."

Schenecker was handcuffed immediately after the verdict and was fingerprinted after making her statement.

One of four alternate jurors, James Holmes, had predicted the verdict earlier Thursday to a scrum of reporters, saying he was "positive" Schenecker would be found guilty of first-degree murder.

"She was sane when it happened," he said. "She's like a train in a tunnel – in a tunnel it's dark and when you come out of it, there's brightness. She was in and out of it at the time."

Holmes said Schenecker's journal entries detailing her plans to kill her children and her thoughts afterwards had a "big impact" on him. "She was well aware of what she was doing," he said.

A bailiff escorted jurors out of the courthouse and said jurors did not wish to discuss the case.

Earlier story:

TAMPA — Julie Schenecker was not insane, prosecutors told a jury Thursday morning. She was methodical, deliberate and scheming.

Beginning on the Sunday in late January, 2011, when Schenecker drove 27 miles from her home in New Tampa to a gun shop in Oldsmar, prosecutor Jay Pruner walked jurors through her crime. He held up to them the .38 revolver she used to shoot her 16-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son and displayed enlargements of the journal entries where she described her plans.

"She laid it out for us, for you, in detail, a detail that required clarity of thought," Pruner said.

Attorneys for Schenecker, 53, are waging an insanity defense, an infrequently used and rarely successful tactic that requires jurors to believe that because of her mental disorder, she couldn't distinguish right from wrong.

Pointing to language in her journal, Pruner said she knew exactly what she was doing.

"I will pick up the gun on Thursday," she wrote, and then she would put her son Beau to bed. She debated whether she would turn on the lights to blind him and how many bullets it would take to kill him. She didn't want to have to reload. "I'm nervous," she wrote.

"The overwhelming evidence, I suggest to you, proves beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant committed a first-degree premeditated murder," Pruner said. He will have another opportunity to address the juror after attorneys for Schenecker complete their closing argument.

Assistant Public Defender Jennifer Spradley, who is representing Schenecker, began her closing by reminding jurors that if they find the defendant insane, it doesn't mean she will walk free.

Schenecker, she told them, was a good and loving mother to her children, but she was severely mentally ill. Her bipolar disorder had never been effectively treated and it was worsening as she aged.

Making matters more difficult, her psychiatrist at the University of South Florida was "in over his head" Spradley said. He was a third-year resident who began treating her about three weeks after he was first permitted to begin seeing patients. To reduce her side-effects, he told her to begin taking less of one of her mood-stabilizing medications.

"She was getting sicker and sicker and sicker," Spradley said. "She was at her worst and the psychosis was a ticking time bomb."

Schenecker's addled mind eventually settled on the idea that she would kill herself – a thought she had long considered. She had tried to commit suicide twice before and this time, while her husband was out of town, she would do it. She wanted to take her children with her so that all three of them could be together in heaven, where she would be disease-free, Spradley said.

"If it doesn't make sense to you, it's because it's psychotic," she said. "You cannot put a healthy logical reason behind psychosis."

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The jury made the right verdict. Watching this on NG. She interviewed one of the juror's and also the gun shop owner.
Thanks, Nite..for posting the verdict.

TAMPA --
Julie Schenecker has been found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her two teenage children.
The judge sentenced her to life in prison without parole on both counts.
Schenecker had admitted to shooting and killing her teenage children, 16-year-old Calyx and 13-year-old Beau in January 2011. She was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
Schenecker addressed the judge after the verdict was read.

"Your honor, I’m prepared and I accept your sentence," she said. "I apologize to everybody in this courtroom who I have broken. The lives I have destroyed. I hope that they can collect themselves as best as possible. All of us...
"Everyone has been so deeply affected and I understand there are people who are affected by this, that may have just read in the paper, maybe a child who looked at their mommy and said 'mommy are you ever going to shoot me?' I know that this could have happened and I apologize for what happened, what I did. I take responsibility. I was there. I know, I know I shot my son and daughter. I don’t know why, but I have a period of time to try and understand that...
“I know our children are in Heaven, I want people to try and find comfort in believing as I do that they are in no pain, and they are alive and enjoying everything and anything Heaven has to offer--Jesus protecting them and keeping them safe until we get there. Their loved ones, all of us, to join them.”

The judge responded by saying, "it's almost too much to comprehend what brings us here. Regretably there is nothing that this court can so or do that is going to bring comfort to those that have been touched by this tragedy."
Col. Parker Schenecker also addressed the media after the sentencing was read.

"First of all I would like to thank the greater Tampa Bay community for their love and support of Calyx and Beau over past three years.It's been a trying time for all of us and you have continued to show us your kindness...

"Today's decision for many reasons gives my family a great sense of relief. As I've consistently mentioned over the past three years, the most important thing in all of this is Calyx and Beau: my lovely children. My smart, beautiful, loved and missed daughter and son. Giving voice to them has been my priority throughout this entire process. And their voices have been heard due to the efforts of many...

"While this decsiion doesn't bring my children back, it does give our family a chance to move forward."

Prosecutors present the jury with hard evidence
James Pruner spent his closing arguments going over previous evidence introduced in court. Still, he meticulously and emphatically went through Schenecker's movements in the days before and of the killings.

"The overwhelming evidence I suggest to you," Pruner said to the jury. "Proves beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant committed first-degree premeditated murder."
Defense attorney Jennifer Spradley spent more than an hour telling jurors of Julie Schenecker's descent into the "claws of bi-polar illness."
"In this case, what your focus is going to be is my client's state of mind because this is not a who done it, this is not a what happened, this is not a cause of death, a self defense," Spradley told the jury. "This is my client's state of mind."
In closing, Spradley asked the jury to find her client not guilty by reason of insanity, taking into consideration her mental illness and psychosis.
"A healthy Julie Schenecker would have never shot her children," she told the jury.
In his rebuttal, Pruner said the entry "the evil starts Thursday" Schenecker wrote in her journal shows she knew what she was doing was wrong.
Schenecker's fate hinged on whether jurors believed she knew what she was doing when the teenagers were shot. Since being convicted of first-degree murder, Julie Schenecker will receive a life sentence, since prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty.

To be found criminally insane under Florida law, a jury would have to find that either didn't know what she was doing when she killed her children or didn't understood that it was wrong.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]