Saturday, February 19, 2000
Killing statement allowed
Attorney comment disregarded
BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — A Butler County judge refused Friday to bar a statement to a sheriff's detective made by a Wayne Township woman accused of killing her newborn daughter.
Carin Madden's attorneys argued that the statement concerning the baby's death should not be admitted as evidence because Detective Katie McMahon of the Butler County Sheriff's Department ignored Ms. Madden's request for an attorney before the questioning Aug. 28. Prosecutors have said Ms. Madden admitted killing the baby.
When Ms. Madden said to Detective McMahon, “Maybe I should talk to an attorney before I make a statement,” the detective should not have started questioning her, defense attorneys said.
But Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth said her comment to Detective McMahon, which she made in the detective's patrol car on the way to the Middletown police station, “was not an unequivocal demand for legal representation.”
Ms. Madden, 20, is accused of killing her newborn by placing her in a plastic bag and throwing her in a garbage can. A Rumpke garbage truck operator discovered the baby in the back of his truck Aug. 28 and called police.
At the Madden family's house on Jacksonburg Road that day, Detective McMahon said, Ms. Madden admitted to her and Major Anthony Dwyer that she gave birth to the baby in the basement.
“We went to the basement and she showed us where she had the baby,” Detective McMahon said.
Detective McMahon drove Ms. Madden to the Middletown police station, where she submitted to a taped interview.
In the portion of the tape played in court, Detective McMahon reviewed with Ms. Madden her rights to an attorney. At her house, Ms. Madden had signed a Miranda rights card and agreed to speak without an attorney, Detective McMahon said.
Ms. Madden is charged with aggravated murder and gross abuse of a corpse. If convicted, she faces the death penalty. A 2-year-old state law allows the death penalty to be considered when someone is alleged to have purposely killed a child under 13.
Defense attorneys Don Moser and Craig Hedric challenged the constitutionality of that law. Mr. Moser said the law is arbitrary and has no rational basis.
Dan Gattermeyer, assistant prosecuting attorney, argued that the legislation is based on the notion that “children under 13 are more vulnerable and less able to protect themselves.”
No Ohio judge has made a ruling on the law's constitutionality, Mr. Moser said.
Judge Spaeth said he will consider the motion and rule later.
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