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07-08-2010, 11:58 AM
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San Antonio Woman Found Insane in Baby's Killing
Otty Sanchez, 33, was committed to a state hospital rather than prison after a judge accepted her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity in the July 2009 stabbing death and mutilation of her 3-week-old son in San Antonio. Sanchez was arrested at her mother's house on July 26, 2009. The infant, Scott Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez, was about three and a half weeks old. Officers found Sanchez with stab wounds to her chest, stomach, neck and face that police said she had inflicted on herself. Investigators recovered a sword, a machete and a kitchen knife from the home, according to police. The 911 call came from Sanchez's sister, Priscilla Garcia. "The baby is dead," Garcia told the dispatcher. "She stabbed him. There's blood all over the bed." Police said Sanchez was screaming that she had killed her baby when officers arrived, and that she told them she had been hearing voices and that the devil had made her do it. Police also said she had eaten parts of the body. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the scene was severe enough that officers who worked it were offered counseling. Sanchez had been taken to a hospital for depression six days before the killing and released less than a day later, the infant's father, Scott Buchholz, told reporters. He said Sanchez had told him she was schizophrenic and had refused prescribed medication after the birth. "Maybe we missed" the warning signs, McManus said. Sanchez was charged with capital murder and could have faced the death penalty. She was found competent to stand trial, but in 2010, less than a year after the killing, a judge accepted the insanity plea after three court-appointed doctors concluded she had been legally insane at the time. Prosecutors agreed to the plea. Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed called it "probably one of the most horrendous cases that we have seen as far as the murder of a child," and said Sanchez had sought treatment before the killing and had not received the care she needed. Sanchez was committed to a state hospital in Vernon, Texas, and her mental condition is reviewed by the court each year. Mental health evaluations released in the case described diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia and postpartum psychosis.
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