hannah overton obituary hannah overton obituary

If anything had been wrong, I would have known it, she insisted. He visited us in the country and brought his serinity along. She and her Menu. Dabney was a pleasant person to be around. She was always smiling, always laughing. As a teenager, she was captivated by missionaries stories of serving in far-flung places, and she began going on group mission trips herself, once venturing as far as Romania. CORPUS CHRISTI - Early on Oct. 3, 2006, the morning after her neighbor Hannah Overton had rushed a dying 4-year-old boy to a nearby urgent care clinic, Kathi Haller got a visit from police. Hey dear, so sorry to hear this newstake care of yourself and your familythinking of you!! Not long after his arrest, a grand jury upgraded the charges against him to capital murder, and he feared that he too might face life in prison. See production, box office & company info. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this difficult time., With love and warm memories of our Cousin Pete. Dinner was potato soupIts good and filling, and its cheap, Larry told mewhich the kids dived into after saying grace. That Andrew had sustained a head injury was based on the presence of a half-inch area of hemorrhaging under the scalp. Fire Ants Have Unleashed Chaos in Texas for Decades. I worked with him at Branch, Cabell many years ago. In 2011, Overtons appellate attorney, Cynthia Orr, filed a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus seeking a new trial. Andrew liked to eat every day, all day, any time, she said. Think of your other children, she urged the couple. Not until Sebastian was born did doctors discover that his only impairment was a hole in his heart, which healed on its own. Cynthia Hujar-Orr, Gerry Goldstein and John Raley were apart of Overtons appellate team, http://pr-prod.com/project/until-proven-innocent/, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/05/10/da-declare-texas-woman-innocent-salt-poisoning-case/315400001/, https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-mother-freed-spending-years-prison-foster-sons/story?id=26186920. Hannah, I am very sad to hear this news. And You Thought Feral Hogs Were Bad. Fleeing for Your Life? The Huntsville Times Homepage. Loose teeth, first day of kindergarten, last day of kindergarten. What a great sense of comfort to know that I could be greated on the other side by such a kind person. The day Andrew died Hannah said she found him in the kitchen pantry but could not determine what he had consumed, if anything. She could not consent to a lesser charge, she told her attorneys, because she felt it would mean she was admitting fault. But the damage was done: that Hannah had confessed to force-feeding Andrew and beating him was repeated, uncorrected, on the local news. I worked with Dabney in the mortgage industry a few years ago and he was everything you described. Andrew seems very happy in this home.. Her second husband was Hampton Overton, who died about. Detective Hess was put on administrative leave in 2008 after it came to light that he had disclosed confidential information to the suspect in an ongoing investigation for indecency with a child. After a week-long trial, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 23 years in prison. I have shared a memorial tribute I wrote about Dabney with all who've asked. But after Hannahs conviction, the DAs office offered him several plea deals, each of which required him to acknowledge that he had intentionally caused Andrews death. Once reunited with their childrenwho were terrified by the ordealLarry and Hannah had to break the awful news to them about Andrew. How do you poison someone with a substance you dont know the contents of? That Hannah had not sought immediate medical attention did not change his view. This was usually on a road trip up or down the Valley. After drinking a little, he threw another tantrum that continued unabated for twenty minutes. Myron F. Overton June 29, 1935 - June 6, 2013 Myron was born in Bakersfield, California to his loving parents Earl C. and Hazel J. Overton. Not until shortly before closing arguments did jurors hear from the defenses expert witness, a Harvard-educated pathologist and assistant medical examiner in San Francisco, Judy Melinek, who offered her opinion that the sores were consistent with mosquito bites that had been scratched and picked at. Hannah Overton, a south Texas mother of five whose wrongful conviction for the 2006 death of her foster son was overturned last year, is expected to receive over $500,000 in compensation from the state for the years she spent in jail. Larry turned them down. Andrews adoption hadnt been finalized, Haller said. Afterward, she instinctively looked back to check on the children, not realizing that her face was covered in blood. I was one of those who was lucky enough to share a friendship with this kind, strong and loving man. Skip to main content. Pam Rooker. Sue and I were certainly saddened to learn of the death of Dabney. (He was subsequently fired by CPS after having three car accidents on the job in less than six months.) Each pregnancy felt extraordinarily fortunate; after Isaac, Hannah had suffered two miscarriages and been advised that she might not be able to have more children. Hannahs mother and stepfather, Hannah, Larry, and the kids on Mothers Day 2006. According to juror number three, a high school English teacher named Margaret Warfield, that was not the case. Melinek, the defenses expert witness, testified about pica and an array of factors that could have contributed to Andrews death, including undiagnosed diabetes. The Overtons had to remain at the Carvers home, where they had been staying to avoid the camera crews that were camped out on their own doorstep, and they were never to be left alone with the baby. Before we ever tried to adopt, we had been warned that this was going to be difficult, that this was not going to be the Little Orphan Annie story, Larry told me. Ive missed, you know, so many things, she said at the time. She believed that Andrews eating habits were not the stuff of pathology but those of a growing boy. Those charges were not considered double jeopardy because Overtons conviction was overturned by the higher court on the basis of ineffective counsel, which granted her a new trial. Despite appearances, however, he was hardly a reprobate. We have a child that was well until that afternoon, that had behavioral issues, that was having temper tantrums, that was then given something . Taken together, the disparate details formed a disturbing picture. He was an example to many by the way he lived his life and his loyalty to those values that determine a true friend. "God is so good!," Overton wrote in the social media post. He was a very sweet and kind person. So she had to find a way out. (Hess did not respond to interview requests for this article but has previously denied Hallers version of events.) And when he became less responsive, she had pulled out her old EMT books to assess what was wrong. He had so many interests and was loyal to those he knew and was involved with, especially those he sailed with as that is where I knew him. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, Hannah would remind him, quoting Philippians. Even more devastating to Hannah were the actions that CPS took that January. A Texas mother who spent years in prison before she was exonerated for capital murder has welcomed a new child. All rights reserved. Pleading out to that was much better than having my children grow up without a mother or a father. In exchange for his plea, Larry was given five years probation and a $5,000 fine. Inside the Bro-tastic Party Mansions Upending a Historic Austin Community, The Campaign to Sabotage Texass Public Schools. If you would like to discuss your case with an attorney at Goldstein & Orr, then please contact us to schedule a consultation. At first, the transition with Andrew went smoothly. He was a nice guy. The children liked to hang out in her room and talk to her, particularly Andrew, who always visited her for an extra hug before bedtime. She had studied years earlier to be an EMT, she explained, and although she had never worked as a paramedic, she had felt confident in her training. She reported Andrews unusual eating habits to his adoption supervisor when she visited the Overton home on September 25. When they took him along on errands, they had to keep him from eating the old gum and cigarette butts he found on the ground. If not for a Corpus Christi couple named Larry and Hannah Overton, Andrew might have lingered in state custody, shuffled from one foster home to another. He was a very quiet and caring man. . (Andrew was told that he could not have any food at McDonalds, since he had already eaten.) The Overtons rushed him to a nearby urgent care clinic after his breathing became labored and he stopped responding to their questions, but by the time they arrived, he had fallen unconscious. Perplexed, Larry installed a baby monitor equipped with a video camera in the boys room so that he and Hannah could observe if Andrew was wandering into the kitchen at night. After years of appeals and hearings the state'shighest criminal court overturned her conviction in 2014. They had also watched the video of Hess questioning Hannah, during which she described calling a paramedic friend in Oklahoma for guidance when the boys condition deteriorated, and even using her cameras flash to check if his pupils were reactive, but never calling for an ambulance. Yet the image they conjuredof a woman grinning at the sight of a comatose four-year-oldwas devastating. The physician only said that the scratch marks he had noticed on the boys neck had been caused, he believed, by another person. Thendistrict attorney Jimenez did not publicly disclose the reasons for the termination, but it occurred one week after Eastwood informed her superiors that she had been romantically involved in the past with a sex offender; she reported that she feared the information had been used by the offenders defense attorney to get him probation in a criminal case. He was predeceased by : his parents, Theodore Roosevelt 'Jack' and Annie Overton of Washington; and his wife Claudia Cotten. Hannah and the girls, who complained of feeling achy, were taken to the hospital in an ambulance while Larrys parents picked up the rest of the family and, after dropping Larry off at the hospital, took the boys to a nearby Whataburger. Our paths crossed later in life and we renewed our friendship. (During the third week of the trial, moments before the case was sent to the jury, Eastwood had asked Judge Longoria if she could call Cortes as a rebuttal witness, but the judge, who had grown impatient with the length of the trial, denied her request.) A colleague of mine who attended the trial told me that the prosecution described Andrew again and again as a normal child, and that is a great distortion of the truth. His foster mother, Hannah Overton, was charged with capital. He didnt drink or smoke, and the bands he listened to sang about glorifying God. Its free. Emma, the youngest, trailed behind them with a doll, occasionally running inside to bang on the piano. At the time of his retirement, he was one of the three oldest practicing attorneys in the Commonwealth. Although he hung back when his siblings embraced their parents in group hugs, Larry and Hannah learned that if they asked Andrew to join in, he would do so enthusiastically, throwing his arms around them. Moritz, in fact, had been asked to testify as an expert witness for Hannahs defense at her trial. I also could never begin to thank those who supported us, prayed and prayed for us, and walked with us along the entire way, Overton said. (You can just tell by looking at her how evil she is, one wrote.) Share Obituary. One of the recent fundraising efforts involves providing "chill towels" to incarcerated women this summer because most Texas prisons are without air conditioning. Dear God, thank you for the soup, Isaac said, his head bowed, his eyes closed tightly. In 2007 he published a seminal paper on salt poisoning, in which he examined, among other things, documented cases of children who had accidentally ingested excessive quantities of salt. Does God want a child to go to bed hurting, in pain, fearful, being looked at by closed-circuit television? "I could never thank my attorneys enough for fighting endlessly to prove my innocence and bring me home," she said. Sign . They had 4 children and were expecting their fifth. Early in the pregnancy, Hannah and Larry were informed that the boy would likely have Down syndrome. The prosecutions most persuasive testimony came from Rotta, the pediatric critical care specialist who had originally expressed concern that Andrew had been mistreated. He will be missed. Still, the overall impression was a damning one. He and the kids return home the same day so that he can teach Sunday school the next morning. No amount of money will ever bring back the years that were taken away, and the seven years of freedom I lost. Ive seen doctors and nurses freeze up when a patient comes in convulsing or in extremis, he said. Could it be that you held his nose, held his neck, and made him drink this horrible concoction? the prosecutor challenged her during a withering cross-examination. Richard and his wife had tried all sorts of tactics to deter him: redirecting his attention, putting gloves on him, even restraining his hands. Here are the tributes to Jonah Lee Overton. Then, abruptly, Andrew grew quiet and stumbled to the floor. This was not a child that came into the office looking well, with a story of, you know, Hes just a tomboy, and he falls and hits himself, Rotta would later testify. My Mother and Father will miss his visits to the house and his heartfelt caring and concerns for all of us. AP. It seemed to me, based upon the wording of the charge, that we had no choice but to find her guilty of capital murder. But, Warfield added, I do not believe that Mrs. Overton knew that her actions (or lack thereof) would kill Andrew Byrd [sic]. My friend Dabo - thanks for the fun at Washington and Lee but mostly for these last few years when your selflessness and wisdom were refreshing to see and experience. Mommy, Im cold, he said, and threw up. He will be missed by his many friends. This is a child that came in [to the emergency room] in cardiopulmonary arrest and was dying. Only Hannah had been able to break through. The Overtons are nurturing, loving, patient, and very family-oriented, an adoption supervisor noted in her paperwork. I pick out the games and I make the decorations, if I can. She devotes most of her evenings to Bible studies, leading groups of inmates through careful examinations of Scripture. During closing arguments, Gilmore emphasized that Hannah had no motive to kill Andrew and that the state had failed to prove that she had intentionally caused the boys death. The following evening, Andrew was dead. Not long afterward, Larry and Hannah heard about Andrew at their church, Calvary Chapel of the Coastlands, which Andrews foster mother also attended. Shana Druckerman contributed to this report, 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Fernandez determined that the boy had died as a result of acute sodium toxicity, with blunt force head trauma as a contributing factor. Please allow 24 hours for your entry to be reviewed for appropriate content. We thought that he would stop turning to food for comfort when he learned that he could trust us.. Hannah Overton, far right, sits next to her attorney, Cynthia Orr, center, and prosecutor, Doug Norman, April 26, 2012 in Corpus Christi, Texas. The appellate court did not rule specifically on Overton's claims of prosecutorial misconduct, saying she deserved a new trial on claims of ineffective counsel. But law enforcement officials are accustomed to handling child abuse cases, not medical mysteries, and salt poisoning is rare enough that most emergency room doctors will never encounter a case during their careers. He was the first one to introduce me to kayaking from Aylett to Walkerton on the Mattaponi. She and her family do so much good with nothing. If he was denied a second or third helping, he would routinely throw a tantrum or get down on his hands and knees to scavenge the floor for crumbs. It has been a long time since I saw Dabney last. Myron attended Longfellow elementary, Panama Union and Kern They said Andrew was going through a very difficult time, she said. He displayed hyperactive behavior and possibly had some cognitive delays as well. The doctors assessment of Andrew as developmentally delayed was significant because it dovetailed with Hannahs testimony. Updated: June 20, 2015 . . We truly thought his obsession with food was a behavioral issue, not a medical one, Larry said. Can Andrew be our brother? the girls pleaded. They declined to do any further chromosomal testing and turned to prayer instead. Im a pretty easygoing guy, but I remember thinking, Six kids? Larry told me. Because he felt cold? He suspected that as the boys condition worsened, Hannah had fallen victim to what he calls stress blindness, a phenomenon he had witnessed many times during his 42 years of practicing medicine. Copyright 2023 GRB Studio | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Funeral arrangement under the care ofHeritage Funeral Home. . She also described her unease with Eastwoods trial strategy, claiming the prosecutor had told her that they would not be calling Cortes because a record in his file indicated that Andrew had behavioral problems. "We shall not see his like again". Hannah Overton, family celebrate her pregnancy months after she's declared innocent in boy's death, Hannah Overton, supporters chant 'Actually innocent' after capital murder dismissal, Nueces County DA to dismiss Overton case, declare woman innocent, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Died Feb. 18, 2003 Mrs. Nettie Sue Overton, 78, Florence passed away Tuesday at Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital. The marks could be consistent with many things, including a fight, an altercation, someone trying to hold this childs neck forcefully, he said. Haller, who took notes documenting her conversation with Hess and later testified about it under oath, recalled the detectives certainty that Hannah had tried to kill Andrew. He was kind and gentle with me, and he made himself available no matter how busy he was. And its full of great reads, yall. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Andrew was not a normal child, Cortes explained to me. May God wrap his loving arms around you until we meet again. Larry taught Sunday school, Hannah led a Bible study, and their children, whom Hannah homeschooled, attended youth group and socialized with other members kids. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Dabney was born on July 31, 1963 and grew up in Essex County, Va. The court, which could rule imminently or years from now, could send the case back to Judge Longoria for a hearing orfar less likelyoverturn her conviction. In Marchshetold ABC News she would receive nearly $600,000 in compensation, along with other benefits, though she acknowledged no sum could give her back the years of freedom she lost. He was born on April 2, 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas to the late Lewis Franklin and Dwight Katherine Overton. Hannahs supporters included a young churchgoer named Dawn Werkhoven, who had lived with the Overtons the year leading up to Andrews death. I knew Dabney from the Richmond Athletic Club. Andrew was a sweet boy who had significant neurological and developmental disorders. Gilmore and his defense team, which included two civil attorneys versed in the intricacies of medical testimony, tried to counter the prosecutions claims that Hannah had poisoned Andrew and purposely delayed medical treatment. Andrew had an enraged mother who didnt, I dont think loved him the way that she loved her own biological children, former Nueces County prosecutor Sandra Eastwood said at trial. Larry with (from left) his children Ally, Isaac, Sebastian, Emma, and Isabel. The defendant has portrayed herself as a nurturing Christian woman, Eastwood proclaimed. The prosecution portrayed her as a mother who had lost control and tried to punish the young boy by giving him seasoning mixed in water. It should be noted that during the entire conversation, Hannah Overton showed almost no emotion, he later wrote in his police report. To never have been producedit was very strange.. Sending a prayer to all his family & friends. A church member who homeschools her daughters educates the Overton children, using lesson plans Hannah sends her. The very dilute gastric sodium contents suggest . But was this churchgoing young woman a vicious child killer? My husband enjoyed sailing with him at FBYC and running into him during a few running events in Richmond. I miss everything, she later wrote to me. However, Judge Longoria could allow the jury to consider a lesser charge if he felt that the evidence did not support capital murder, and after hearing the states case, he did so, telling both the prosecution and the defense that he was willing to let the jury consider manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. Like Hannah, Haller homeschooled her children, and the two mothers split teaching duties; the Haller children went to the Overton home for instruction for part of the day and vice versa. Top: A family birthday celebration in the summer of 2006. She was born April 24, 1945 to Dabney Overton Sr. and Henrietta Mallory Overton and grew up in Warsaw, VA. She was graduated from St. Margaret's School in 1963 where she was awarded the Bishop's Prize all four years.