commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Although a disturbing number of mothers (and fathers) neglect and abuse their children, it is, according to some reports, rather rare for mothers to purposefully take their own children’s lives. More often, when mothers do kill their youngsters, it is accidental as in rolling over and smothering them in the night or inadvertently asphyxiating them in a vehicle.
When mothers do kill their kids, it is usually either through abuse and neglect (Mary Lavonne Vaughn comes to mind), sheer malice (Kathryn Folbigg who murdered 4 of her children over the course of many years is a prime example), or as a direct result of mental illness (the famous Andrea Yates case in which Ms. Yates drowned her five kids because she wanted to save them from the fires of hell is an oft-cited example).
It is virtually impossible to project any positive feelings toward murdering mothers who fall into the first two categories. Mothers who kill their children as a result of serious mental illness, however, generally elicit sympathy, and even compassion, from those of us who recognize that the seriously mentally ill can’t control their actions. Nonetheless, and the recent conviction of Julie Schenecker is a prime example, a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia or advanced bipolar disorder with psychotic features will not necessarily protect a perpetrator from being found guilty of first or second-degree-murder by a jury in a court of law.
Now, we have a brand new case in which an attractive and seemingly poised Southern California mother is being held (most likely without bond) for the TRIPLE MURDER of her three little girls, two of whom were in the toddler stage. The youngest victim was only a few months old.
By all appearances, the perpetrator, 30-year-old Carol Coronado, a resident of an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County near the South County City of Torrance, took excellent care of her children. This statement assumes that we can place our faith in images posted on Facebook, which of course is problematical. Based on the Facebook images, however, Ms. Coronado’s three little ones were neatly dressed and appear very well cared for.
Based once again on appearances, Ms. Coronado bears none of the tell-tale physical signs of mental illness. A typical snapshot of David Tarloff or Julie Schenecker placed side-by-side with a photo of Carol Coronado gives the distinct impression that two of the three are highly disturbed, while the third, Ms. Coronado, appears to be rather “normal”.
So what in the world happened to cause Ms. Coronado to murder her three tiny tots? Going by the available evidence which includes statements from family members, there appears to be little if any doubt that she IS the perpetrator.
Let’s review what is known keeping in mind that at this stage in an investigation, little is set in stone:
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, on Tuesday, May 21st, deputies were called to the 1000 block of West 223rd Street at around 5:10 p.m. after the children’s grandmother found the girls’ dead bodies on a bed in the family home.
Michael Zennie and Louise Boyle of The Daily Mail write:
‘When they arrived, they were met by family members who told the deputies that a mother had killed her children,’ the statement said.
Inside the home, detectives found a horrific scene of three young girls laying dead in a pool of blood on the family bed. The children were pronounced dead at the scene.
‘The deputies were directed to the house by the grandmother,’ sheriff’s homicide Lt. Dave Coleman told the Daily Breeze of Torrance. ‘We did find the babies inside the residence.’
A neighbor, Ashley Madrid, told the Daily Breeze that the children’s father, a man named Rodolfo Coronado, was working on his car across the street when his mother-in-law discovered the horrific scene inside the Coronado residence.
‘I saw when they were bringing him out,’ Ms Madrid said. ‘He was crying. He was crying, ”She killed my daughters!’”
Madrid also apparently told the Daily Breeze that she was told Ms. Coronado had a kitchen knife in her hand and was trying to cut her wrists.
According to Madrid, sheriff’s deputies took Coronado, who was naked except for a blanket, first to a patrol car and then placed her in an ambulance.
‘She was full of blood on her face and arms,’ Madrid said.
Ms. Madrid stated further that the children’s grandmother told her that Coronado had called earlier in the day and said that she was going crazy. The grandmother had stopped by to visit her grandchildren, also no doubt intending to check up on her daughter.
Numerous media outlets have reported on this story and although the reports are very similar, as is so often the case, there are slight variations. CBS Local.com out of Los Angeles reports that the three deceased little girls were 3, 2 and two months.
According to this report, when deputies entered the home, Coronado was naked and bloody with a knife in her hand.
The neighbor, Ashley Madrid, seems to provide a bit more information in this version, probably based on her conversation with the children’s grandmother. In addition to having blood all over her face, legs and arms, “Her face was like stone . . . just looking at the floor,” said Ashley.
CBS Local also reports that Coronado had formerly served in the army.
Lt. Dave Coleman reports: “At this point no, she didn’t say anything. She’s being detained and we will try to talk with her later.”
Probably the most important additional bit of news is the fact that detectives said Coronado’s mother first contacted them earlier in the day Tuesday, saying her daughter was stressed and asking them for help. As is sometimes the case, it appears that the county sheriff’s may not have driven out to Coronado’s house to interview her.
At this point, it is also apparently unclear whether Ms. Coronado had a history of suffering from mental health problems.
In addition, although detectives stated on Wednesday that several knives, presumably covered wholly or partly with blood, were recovered at the crime scene, it is not yet known whether the children’s deaths resulted from stab wounds.
The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office has placed a security hold on information related to their investigation.
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I would have to say that of all the capital cases we’ve covered here on All Things Crime Blog, this is certainly one of the most horrifying.
Unless Ms. Coronado can prove that she is not guilty by reason of insanity (or finds some other legal defense), she will certainly spend the rest of her life in one of California’s notorious state penitentiaries.
Because at present no information has been disclosed concerning whether she has a history of mental illness, it is mere conjecture at this point to suggest that she could plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
California law with respect to this issue proceeds as follows:
The legal defense of insanity in California law means that you cannot be found guilty of a crime if you were legally insane when you committed it. Under California’s insanity defense, you are considered legally insane if you either
- Did not understand the nature of your criminal act, OR
- Did not understand that what you were doing was morally wrong.
This definition of legal insanity is known as the “McNaghten (sometimes spelled M’Naghten or McNaughten) rule.”
You can plead not guilty by reason of insanity at your arraignment hearing. For the insanity defense to work, you will then need to prove that it is more likely than not that you were legally insane when you committed your crime.
If you can convince the jury at your California criminal jury trial that you are not guilty by reason of insanity, then you will be committed to a state mental hospital instead of being sent to prison.
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Every time I am confronted by this sort of case, I thank my lucky stars that I’ve made it into my 7th decade without going stark raving mad.
If I was clinically insane, and if I had done something similar to Ms. Coronado’s alleged acts, assuming I didn’t kill myself, I suppose I would plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Anything has got to be better than spending the rest of your life in a California state prison.
Of course, this presupposes that I had recovered my wits enough to understand my lawyer’s advice and understood my legal options. And, of course, if the jury believed that I was sane enough to invoke a not guilty by reason of insanity defense, they would more than likely decide that I must have been fully aware of what I was doing when I committed the awful crime(s).
Over and over again, we have seen that it’s tough to win on an insanity defense these days. And, of course, there is some possibility that Ms. Coronado was suffering from severe post-partum depression.
Update:
Sandy Mazza of The Daily Breeze writes:
A Los Angeles County grand jury on Monday indicted a South Bay woman who allegedly killed her three children before she stabbed herself, and then attempted to kill her mother when she arrived at the family’s home to find the bloody scene.
Appearing in Compton court Monday morning, Carol Ann Coronado, 30, entered two pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
From a strategic standpoint, it is interesting to note that Ms. Coronado had already pleaded not guilty to the charges in Compton court on May 29, but that guilty plea is now moot because the prosecutors sent the case to the criminal grand jury for possible indictment. Since the grand jury did indict, the previous pre-indictment charges will be dropped. The advantage of an indictment to the prosecution is that the defendant then loses the right to a preliminary to determine if a trial is warranted based on the evidence.
Ms. Coronado’s attorney, Stephen Allen of Riverside, is disappointed by the indictment. He wanted a preliminary hearing because that would have given the judge a pre-trial opportunity to hear results from extensive psychiatric testing done on Coronado.
“I’m kind of disappointed because there’s a lot of mitigating evidence that the District Attorney’s Office doesn’t have yet that explains what happened,” Allen said. “So I believe there were a lot of facts missing in what they presented to the grand jury. There are still a lot of unknowns. We’ve been doing a lot of psychiatric evaluations and I don’t have all those reports in yet.”
Allen said he believes Coronado was suffering “some sort of psychosis” when she allegedly killed her daughters. She is now receiving anti-psychotic medication while awaiting trial in the psychiatric ward at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.