Story Created:
Nov 4, 2009 at 10:51 AM CST
Story Updated:
Nov 4, 2009 at 5:23 PM CST
GRUNDY CENTER - Jurors in the Michelle Kehoe case begin deliberations on Thursday. And they'll weigh two differing opinions on her mental condition.
Kehoe is accused of killing two-year-old son Seth and wounding then seven-year-old son Sean with a knife.
With the defense admitting Kehoe attacked her children, the case comes down to if she mentally ill at the time. On Wednesday, medical experts offered two conflicting opinions.
Defense Psychologist Marilyn Hutchinson found a long history of mental problems in Kehoe's medical file. She told jurors Kehoe tried many medications and even electroshock therapy over the years and every setback made things worse.
"She would become hopeful something else would work and it wouldn't. And it would throw her into hopelessness," said Marilyn Hutchinson.
Hutchinson says the planning that Kehoe did, buying a knife and duct tape and choosing this isolated location, might argue she knew what she was doing. But the psychologist told jurors in Kehoe's mind, her children were doomed to a life of mental problems like hers. In her mind, what she did was in kindness.
"She was saving them from a lifetime of depression which she felt certain they would have and which she had found terribly unbearable," said Hutchinson.
The prosecution expert, psychiatrist Dr. Michael Taylor, looked at the same records and came to a different conclusion. Doctor Taylor called Kehoe's planning the most compelling argument for sanity.
"Precisely, methodical, planned this offense and carried it out. Clearly refutes her actions were the product of any sort of mental disorder," said Dr. Michael Taylor.
Jurors heard instructions about the charges and possible verdicts late Wednesday. On Thursday, they'll hear final arguments and will begin deliberations.
Full coverage of the Kehoe Case
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