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Thread: Kimberley Lucas Sentenced to Life in 2014 FL Murder of Two-Year-Old Elliana Lucas-Jamason

  1. #21
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Hurricane Irma: Courts reopen after case, judge selection delays


    By Daphne Duret and Jane Musgrave
    Palm Beach Post

    The federal courthouse in West Palm Beach will reopen on Monday.

    The closings have already delayed hundreds of cases in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, including the sentencing of 50-year-old Rodney Clark, convicted last month of the 1987 murder of 27-year-old Dana Fader.

    A jury last week had begun hearing testimony in a hearing to decide whether they would recommend a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty for Clark. But after a day of testimony, Circuit Judge Charles Burton told the panel that the courthouse would be closing in anticipation of the storm and asked them to come back Wednesday.

    On Wednesday morning however, a voicemail recording from his judicial assistant asked all jurors to return to court on Monday, Sept. 18 for the continuation of the hearing.

    The timing, in turn, makes the scheduled start of another death penalty case doubtful. Jury selection was supposed to begin this Friday in the first-degree murder and child abuse trial of Kimberly Lucas, the Jupiter woman charged with the May 2014 drowning death of the 2-year-old daughter she shared with her former partner. Lucas is also charged with trying to kill their 10-year-old son by drugging him with Alprazolam and telling him “it would help make him grow.”

    Both Clark and Lucas are represented by Palm Beach County Public Defender Carey Haughwout and one of her top assistant public defenders, Elizabeth Ramsey. And Circuit Judge Charles Burton is presiding over both cases.

    Because the judge and attorneys can’t handle two trials at once, it appears the Lucas case will be delayed until Clark’s sentencing hearing is done.

    http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/cr...k7N4m8suSHXPP/
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    - Rev. Richard Hawke

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  2. #22
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Kimberly Lucas gets life in prison for drowning 2-year-old daughter

    By Daphne Duret
    The Palm Beach Post

    In the car on her way to the Palm Beach County courthouse Tuesday, Jacquelyn Jamason clutched her baby girl Elliana’s favorite stuffed animal — a soft gray, orange-eyed bunny named Sofia — and listened to every word of the chorus from Christian pop artist Hannah Kerr’s song, Warrior.

    With tears streaming down her cheeks and the arm of her 13-year-old son, Ethan, around her a short time later, Jamason repeated the words for Circuit Judge Charles Burton. As he listened, the judge glanced over at Kimberly Lucas, Jamason’s former partner of 21 years and the woman who on Tuesday accepted a sentence of life in prison to escape a possible death penalty for drowning 2-year-old Elliana in a bathtub and trying to poison Ethan to death.

    Lucas, 43, told Burton she had no memory of killing the child she and Jamason shared but still wanted to take the plea deal for the life sentence plus an additional 30 years. Had her case gone to trial, her attorneys would have argued that she was legally insane on May 26, 2014 and that one of her alternate personalities carried out the acts.

    The plea agreement, however, ended Lucas’s case in the same way that most high-profile death penalty cases have ended over the past several years in Palm Beach County. And it prevented the agony of a potential trial for Jamason, who after an emotional sentencing hearing said she had been against a potential death sentence for Lucas.

    “When you bring a child into the world, you never think you have to say goodbye to them as well,” Jamason told Burton, recounting the last moments she had with the toddler in a hospital, with tubes attached to her nose and mouth. “She was so quiet and so beautiful. I told her that mommy loved her forever and ever and I was so sorry.”

    Several feet away, Lucas sobbed audibly. In a rambling confession letter authorities discovered after the killing, Lucas blamed her actions on Jamason, who gave birth to Ethan and Elliana. Lucas also quoted parts of a sermon she’d heard the previous day on what was the last time she attended Metropolitan Community Church.

    Lucas’ interpretation of the message and harsh words she had for congregants she listed by name deepened the pain of congregants who remembered Elliana Tuesday as “a little girl with an old soul.”

    The wounds ran deep even three years after the girl’s death, the Rev. Lea Brown told Burton on Tuesday. Brown, who was the pastor who delivered the sermon mentioned by Lucas and centered on the biblical story of Issac and Abraham, said she has long since forgiven Lucas but was glad the case was over.

    “Killing her would not have brought Elliana back,” Brown said, although she said she will never understand why Lucas killed the girl.

    Sandra McManus, another church member, spoke on Lucas’ behalf, calling her “the daughter I never had.”

    Though few in the packed courtroom left Tuesday without shedding tears, most agreed the heaviest weight fell on the shoulders of Elliana’s brother, Ethan Jamason. Assistant State Attorney Terri Skiles said Ethan was just 10 when he dragged his baby sister out of the tub, tried in vain to revive her and still managed to call 911 while clinging to life himself after Lucas convinced him to swallow a bunch of alprazolam pills by telling him the doctor said the pills would make him grow.

    Ethan stood in front of Burton Tuesday and said still remembered what it was like to hug his baby sister and make her laugh. He referred to Lucas by her first name and said she “used to be my mom.”

    Already an accomplished ballet dancer at 13, he wanted Burton to know that although his last day with Lucas changed his life forever, he refused to let it define him.

    “Don’t call me a victim,” Ethan said.

    As part of the agreement, Lucas had to agree never to have any contact with Ethan again, which several times became a point of tension in the sentencing hearing.

    Skiles and Assistant State Attorney Jill Richstone stayed silent as Lucas’ mother expressed how much she missed Ethan and described how she desperately tried to get her daughter help for what defense attorneys say was an eventual diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder. But when Lucas’ sister, Stacey, expressed several times that she wanted to reconnect with Ethan and be a part of his life, Skiles raised her eyebrows and appeared about to interject when Burton stepped in.

    He apologetically explained that the no-contact order with Lucas herself made such statements awkward at that moment.

    “Plus, all of this…this is a lot for him right now,” Burton said.

    When it was her time to speak, Lucas tearfully addressed Ethan directly and professed her love for him. The words appeared to hit him hard. He hung his head, blonde-tipped waves of hair covering his face, and clutched his uncle’s hand.

    Burton again intervened, and stopped Lucas a second time after she tried to recount memories of cheering the boy on at soccer games.

    Palm Beach County Public Defender Carey Haughwout, who personally stepped in to handle Lucas’ case along with Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Ramsey after Lucas’ family ran out of money for attorneys, appeared to tell Lucas to refer to Ethan in the third person and address her comments to Burton.

    Lucas nodded her head, repeated “OK” several times, and shuffled through the words she’d written a few times before she looked up at Burton.

    “I wish I could have been the momma he deserved,” Lucas said.

    Lucas and Jamason had been together for more than 20 years and joined together in a 2001 civil union, but were estranged at the time of the killing. Jamason has said that Lucas suffered from complications from gastric bypass surgery and had subsequently developed a prescription drug problem that contributed to their split.

    After three years of hearings in the case, including some related to Florida’s recently changed death penalty law, the case finally appeared headed for trial in May, when Burton set jury selection to begin Sept. 14.

    Five unexpected days of closed courts due to Hurricane Irma delayed that start date, and by then attorneys on both sides had begun discussing a plea deal in the case. Tuesday’s outcome for Lucas resembles agreements prosecutors have made in the past for Paul Michael Merhige and Neal Jacobson — two other high-profile death penalty cases where Haughwout planned to pursue an insanity defense.

    For Jamason, Tuesday was a day to remember her daughter, from the words of a song that encouraged her to stand strong in the face of heartache to memories of the little girl, who loved to eat cake and dazzled her family with an infectious grin.

    “I believe that she was God’s gift to us, to teach us how to laugh, and how to smile,” Jamason said. “I really do miss her sense of humor. I miss her smile, and her laugh. I really miss her spirit.”

    http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/...ZaAMNBScMuBmJ/

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