Through a Mother's Eyes Read online

  Salma, like others after her, was surprised at Julie’s demeanor. She was acting like the scene was “no big deal.” Julie spoke with the dispatcher at 911.

  Around noon on November 7, an Orlando police officer arrives on the scene and sees that the Orlando Fire Department paramedics are interviewing a white female. Another officer arrived. Both approached the paramedics who inform the officers that the victim has no vital signs. They observed a young, white, male child lying on the bed. The officer took command and directed the paramedics to exit the room. A crime scene is established. Crime scene tape secured the area. Julie is detained.

  Crime Scene Technicians arrive and begin collecting evidence. Fingerprints and photographs are taken. They also find clothing, bed covers, bloody towels, empty drug wrappers, torn up handwritten letters, and notes. They have all of the identification that Julie prepared for them. Julie’s Chevrolet Camaro Z-28, parked in the south side parking lot of the hotel, is searched. Other officers canvass the hotel for other witnesses. Later, they transport Julie to Orlando Police Headquarters for her statement and interrogation.

  A very soft-spoken, homicide detective with a slight Southern accent is assigned to the case. A few minutes before one o’clock in the afternoon on November 7, Detective Jon Parks stops by Orlando Police Headquarters to pick up Detective Bud Jones who has also been assigned to the case. Detective Jon Parks has spent twenty-five years of his life in the Homicide Division of the Orlando Police Department. Detective Parks leads the investigation.

  Detectives Parks and Jones arrive at the scene a short time later and are met by a sergeant who during their briefing advises that the mother of the victim is Julie and that she is being detained. Detective Parks requests, if she is agreeable, that Julie be transported to headquarters for questioning. As Julie is escorted past the two detectives, Jon Parks inquires if she is okay. Julie answers that she is. He asks if she is under the influence of any drugs and/or requires hospitalization. Again, Julie replies that she is okay.

  The two detectives then enter the crime scene. On the desk are the pages of Julie’s handwritten letters. A CST turns the pages with rubber gloves on so Parks can read them. The sixth page of Julie’s letter describes how she murdered her son.

  At 1434 (2:34 p.m.), on the second floor and inside the locked doors of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), Julie is read her rights. She is asked if she has consumed any drugs or alcohol. Julie, still incoherent, tells them that she has taken multiple tablets of the Lora. She waives her right to counsel. The subsequent interview by Detectives Parks and Jones is captured on audio and videotape. While she is questioned, Julie attempts to answer but is seen on the videotape to behave like a rag doll. She has difficulty keeping her head up and a good many answers are inaudible. Her speech is slurred. Her mood varies from calm to tearful. She appears to be tired, seems not to care, and is seen to be very nonchalant and indifferent. She is confused about dates and times. At no time is she tested for drugs. At no time is she focused enough to describe all of the medications that she has consumed. Whenever the detectives leave the room, she places her head on the table to sleep. Attempts are made to reconstruct a timeline from the day before until the night of the murder.

  PARKS: Could you express to us what your feelings were as to why you felt you had to do this, why it was necessary?

  JULIE: It doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter what my motives are, nobody’s ever going to understand them (inaudible) believe they were okay and to me that’s perfectly fine.

  PARKS: Well my understanding was that it was because you did not want Chuck to get custody of Charles. Is that correct?

  JULIE: (Inaudible)

  PARKS: And then, you were...

  JULIE: Afraid he would.

  PARKS: And you were afraid that he would and you didn’t feel that there was any way that you would be able to stop the pain medication.

  JULIE: Not without treatment…

  JONES: One thing I wasn’t clear about, when, when you were trying to get into the room and the, the manager or whatever let you in, or when you realized you were using the wrong key, do you remember that? You said you banged on the door for Charley to answer.

  JULIE: (No answer)

  JONES: Why did you do that?

  JULIE: Because I didn’t have my keys to get in.

  PARKS: But I mean at that point you pretty much knew, knew that Charley was gone didn’t you?

  JULIE: No, that’s when I, oh, you’re not the officer...no, 30 minutes before...I had run down, filled the bucket up with ice and, um, ran out real quick and forgot my keys and it’s right, right up the hall, down the hall there...And I ran back and I knocked on the door and I said “Charley”, and he answered me and I said can you come (inaudible) I locked, I left my key in there and he said sure. And came over and walked and opened the door.

  PARKS: Had he already been cut at this point?

  JULIE: Oh, yes.

  PARKS: But, but he was still, he was still conscious and everything?

  JULIE: When he was cut, no, not when he was cut. Oh, he wasn’t at all, not really until…

  PARKS: He did wake up this morning?

  JULIE: That’s what I said until he wake up, woke up this morning. He woke up this…

  PARKS: After the pills and––

  JULIE: Yes, after, yes....

  PARKS: After he––

  JULIE: After, yes he did. But I don’t know what the hell happened honest to God I don’t because he was in the bed when I banged on the door for him to come to it. And, um, he came and he unlocked the door so he walked all the way and he was fine. I said are you hungry, no. Are you hurting anywhere, no?

  Julie and the detectives realize that she is confusing the days. They talk about why she cleaned him and placed Charley in the bed with her chains around his neck. They inquire about the pharmacy that she got the prescriptions from. The question of what medication she took followed. Julie constantly refers to the Lora/Vicodin and the quantities (40-60 tablets per day) but never tells them that she took the Lopressor, Benadryl, or drank the Bourbon and Coke. The questioning continues and references to the broken glass found inside the hotel room are made.

  PARKS: Cause I saw glass everywhere.

  JULIE: Yeah, I cut myself on a couple little pieces of it in the hotel.

  PARKS: Look at your wrist, inside your wrist, did that happen this morning or last night?

  JULIE: Last night?

  PARKS: Last night. Were, were you thinking about something when that happened?

  JULIE: Yeah.

  PARKS: What were you thinking about? Were you thinking about committing suicide?

  JULIE: Oh God...don’t put me on a suicide precaution in here. I wouldn’t...please don’t judge me in here. I would never (inaudible)…but still.

  PARKS: You’re over that then, you’re not gonna––

  JULIE: I’m...no I, I, I’ve...already destroyed everybody and everybody.

  PARKS: When you first tried it with Charley, you couldn’t do it deep enough?

  JULIE: The first time, yeah, and the second time, and the third time then it opened up and it just didn’t...

  PARKS: You’d indicated in the note around 3:00 a.m. is when he died. Is that correct?

  JULIE: Yeah.

  Chuck is reached and asked to appear at headquarters. Sgt. McCoy, Orange County Victim’s Advocate Lynn Rhodes, and Jon Parks are there to deliver proper notification of the death of his son to him. Julie’s parents are notified. Dorothy Sedgwick of the State Attorney’s Office is briefed.

  Enough evidence is gathered besides Julie’s taped confession to charge her with First- Degree Murder per Florida State Statute 782.04. Detective Parks prepares and completes the Charging Affidavit: Case Number 96-369593; Court Case Number CR96-13616. Julie is arrested for the murder of her son Charley.

  Deputy Chief Medical Examiner William R. Anderson, M.D, completes the medicolegal examination (autopsy) of Charley on November 8, 1
996 at 9:00 AM at the Orange County Medical Examiner Facility, Orlando, Florida, pursuant to Florida Statute Chapter 406 and 732.9185. Received with the body are a shirt, towel, silver necklace with crucifix and medallion, and medications. A friend made the official identification of Charley. A later report released April 15, 1997, by the Medical Examiner’s Office would state that the lacerations to Charley’s wrist or neck were not fatal. But the Benadryl and Lopressor were at toxic level enough to cause his death.

  The media was relentless with their coverage of the murder. But the front-page headlines of the Orlando Sentinel overshadowed what happened locally by continuing the intense focus on another more noteworthy, national murder case. The headline on November 7, 1996 read, “Jurors Watch Videotape of O. J. Trying on Gloves.”

  The next day, November 8, barely noteworthy was another brief recap of the murder that simply stated, “Police: Mom Kills Son to Keep Him from Dad.”

  Three years later, when I was seeking interviews with the officers who were on the scene I found strong, passionate feelings and responses that I did not expect to find in them. All but Detective Jon Parks refused to talk with me on the record. Off the record, I was told how much it affected them more so than all of the other murder scenes they had witnessed. I asked why. They said that the crime scene was quite “antiseptic” for a murder. The normally anticipated excessive violence, which usually includes the gruesome, the grotesque, and the disheveled just, wasn’t there. It was just a small boy who was clean and who appeared to be sleeping.

  Each of the officers had small children of their own and couldn’t understand why or how she could do such a thing. They had observed her behavior and were confused. They couldn’t understand why she was not distraught over the death of her son. Julie’s matter-of-fact behavior angered them. She just didn’t cry. One officer said he didn’t want Julie to profit from this book or in any way receive any recognition and a possible early release from prison from some bleeding hearts. He wondered who would speak for Charley. Another officer said, “When you looked in there you saw your own kid.”

  Homicide Detective Jon Parks did sit down with me. He had the same vivid recollections as the others. On Friday, March 12, 1999; we sat together in one of CID’s interrogation rooms.

  STONE: How long have you been with the OPD?

  PARKS: Since June 16, 1974. Be 3 ½ months for 25 years.

  STONE: What was your reaction and impressions on November 7 at the crime scene?

  PARKS: Very unusual crime scene, um, it was really kind of difficult, I mean, you could see the letter and read the letter and kind of understand what was going on and, uh, it wasn’t...But it was very unusual the way the scene looked, uh, I think it was Benadryl she’d been giving him, a lot of Benadryl there. He looked like he’d been placed in bed and cleaned, washed, um, as I recall I believe he even had a necklace on him that she’d put on him. Unusual crime, you don’t usually see crime scenes like that. They’re disorganized and bloody and all this, this wasn’t disorganized.

  STONE: What was her demeanor like?

  PARKS: Very unusual for a mother, um, I guess it was due to the drugs that she was on, um, very matter-of-fact. She had very little or no remorse really didn’t show any remorse at all, very like you would suspect somebody that was on drugs––just very monotone, very lack of expression, uh, strange.

  STONE: Was she coherent?

  PARKS: Oh yeah. She could answer questions fine. Uh, I think most people would think it was, was kind of like shock or something that some people might go into during a traumatic experience or something. But it was different than that with her.

  STONE: She indicated that she was satisfied that she did it?

  PARKS: Yes.

  STONE: Was she crying?

  PARKS: No, she was just like I said––very unemotional. Just kind of, just going through the, just going through it. Just very, just didn’t care about anything or anybody––herself, or anything.

  STONE: It appears that it didn’t go as she had planned.

  PARKS: I think she had problems, um, uh; probably things didn’t go exactly as she had planned and she wasn’t real sure how to remedy those problems. I guess she in her own mind remedied them the only way she knew how.

  STONE: Did she know how to or try to manipulate the legal system?

  PARKS: No, not at all.

  STONE: Was it premeditated murder?

  PARKS: Obviously, she went and prepared.

  STONE: I understand that Chuck rallied to her side after.

  PARKS: Yes, you’re talking about the husband––yes, only through hearing from the attorneys that he was her biggest ally.

  STONE: Why would he do that?

  PARKS: My guess? Maybe some guilt there, something, uh, the normal thing I think most people would think it was probably some guilt between, um, how he felt, or maybe treated, or something that occurred during the marriage or something like that for her to do something like this is probably why he rallied to her. I would guess, I don’t know.

  STONE: Why did she do it?

  PARKS: She had a problem with…she thought that he might get custody. That was the big reason for, uh, in her mind for what she did... Drugs, uh, unhappy marriage probably covers most of it.

  STONE: Spousal revenge?

  PARKS: Yes, I think so.

  STONE: What was her parent’s reaction?

  PARKS: Um, not fully aware of what was going on in her life. I don’t think they had an idea she would ever injure Charley. I don’t think anybody knew. It’s not something that comes to mind. You don’t know the hatred is that strong, uh, I guess there’s a lot of things when you’re in a drug induced state that your thinking is not as clear, is clouded, but her talking to me she was immediate response to all of my questions.

  STONE: Did she try to kill herself?

  PARKS: I’m thinking...it was right...we didn’t take her to the hospital so if there was serious injury to her we would have taken her to the hospital just before, you know, coming down here.

  STONE: How do you think this could have been prevented?

  PARKS: If she sought help for her drug problem or if her husband had noticed it, or relatives, her family had done something to make her go to the doctor, make her really seek psychiatric help.

  My interview with Detective Parks ended. What I found was a man who seemed to have a certain level of compassion for Julie in spite of what she had done. There was an investigator’s professional detachment mixed with sadness. He never once called her the “suspect,” or the “perpetrator,” or was derogatory toward her in any way.

  I asked Julie during our interview what she was going to do after she realized that she had failed in her attempted suicide that night.

  JULIE: Oh, I would have killed myself once I came to enough. Oh yes, yes, yes, I would have been, when, when I came “around-around.” I was devastated that I was not...where I had intended to be, that’s a definite.

  In January of 1997, Chuck, in his deposition he stated:

  “You know the part about this whole thing that doesn’t make sense to me is, you know, in retrospect I have an awful lot of guilt and I’m trying to, I’m trying to sort out my feelings and I’m trying to figure out what my contribution to this was. The fact that my son is gone, whether it’s a car accident, or bolt of lightening, or he drowned, is bad enough. I mean, Charley was my life…I know that sounds odd in light of some of the things I told you about, wanting him aborted and everything, but I loved him. And I love him still. But she loved him. I mean, more than her own breath. It just doesn’t make any sense...She loved Charley more than any mother I’ve ever seen love a child. So for her to do that, something, whether it was me, or what she perceived me to be, or do, or what she might have thought I would do, or whether it was a cumulative effect of me forcing her to kill babies and making her life miserable, I don’t know. Okay? I don’t know.”

  3

  The next stop on this journey is the judicial process. We know
Julie’s timeline––her chronology. We know what happened on the night of November 6, 1996. We are about to learn what the price and the consequences were for Julie’s actions that sad night.

  My research into Julie’s life began with a drive to the Clerk of the Court’s office located inside the Orange County Courthouse, Orlando, Florida. I thought about how overwhelming the system must feel when you’re dragged through it––the reality. The news cameras, police, judges, cells and all the rest must flash past your eyes while floating helplessly on your way up the river.