An Ohio mother charged with suffocating her three young sons said in a recorded police interview that she smothered each boy with a blanket because she didn't want them to suffer.
Brittany Pilkington, 24, also said in her taped confession she was depressed and worried her sons would eventually become abusive toward women.
Pilkington can be heard in the recording, made in August 2015, a day after the death of her youngest son, telling officers that she was sleeping with the infant in bed and then woke up on top of him. She also was recorded saying she held a blanket over her other son's face.
The married mother-of-four is accused of suffocating her sons over a 13-month period out of jealousy at the attention her husband gave the boys.
Authorities allege she killed her 3-month-old son Niall in July 2014, his 4-year-old Gavin in April 2015 and 3-month-old Noah in August 2015. The couple's 5-year-old daughter remains in the custody of relatives.
Pilkington has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated murder. Her trial is scheduled for late February 2017, and if convicted, she could face the death penalty.
A Logan County judge has been reviewing Pilkington's statements while considering a request to exclude her confession in the potential death penalty case. Her lawyers argued it was obtained unconstitutionally.
Prosecutors, however, said the Bellefontaine woman knowingly agreed to be interviewed without the presence of a lawyer.
'These were not statements that were coerced but were given voluntarily,' Logan County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Eric Stewart said.
But the defense claimed police officers pressured Pilkington into making the self-incriminating statements in violation of the 5th and 14th Amendments.
Pilkington's attorney Marc Triplett told Judge Mark O’Connor on Tuesday that police knew his client's 'lack of mental acuity' and that she didn't understand when she signed a form waiving her Miranda rights.
Stewart countered by noting that Pilkington obtained her high school diploma and that she was advised of her rights by officers at the police station and then again at the sheriff's office.
As the judge watched Pilkington's hours-long police interview in court on Tuesday and Wednesday, the woman sat quietly between her two lawyers and kept her head down, reported the station WDTN.
In July, Pilkington's husband, 44-year-old Joseph Pilkington, pleaded guilty to sexual imposition for having sex with his wife before they were married and getting her pregnant when she was just 17 years old.
Before marrying her, the man had been in a long-term relationship with Brittany's mother and had lived with her under one roof from the time she was nine.
Under the plea deal, the husband was required to register as a sex offender for 15 years. Pilkington is not considered a suspect in his children's deaths.
No comments:
Post a Comment