RYLAN ROCHESTER - 6 Months (2010)/ Not guilty - Insanity: Mother; Stephanie Rochester - Boulder CO

Boulder CO ---- A 34-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the
death of her 6-month-old son.

Representatives from Avista Hospital notified the Boulder County
Coroner's Office of the death of 6-month-old Rylan Rochester on Tuesday.
The infant was brought to the hospital by his parents seeking medical
assistance.

The Coroner said the infant's death was intentional.

Rylan's mother, Stephanie Rochester, was arrested Tuesday afternoon and
charged with First Degree Murder and one count of Child Abuse resulting
in death. She was being held at the Boulder County Jail where her bond
has been set at $750,000.

Investigators were told the infant's parents found him unresponsive in
his crib. He was brought to Avista hospital, where attempts were made to
resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at the
hospital.

The 34-year-old mother accused of killing her 6-month-old son will make
her first appearance in court Thursday.
Stephanie Rochester of Superior was arrested about 6 p.m. Tuesday on
charges of first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. She
is being held at the Boulder County Jail in lieu of a $750,000 bond.


Police say the baby, Rylan Rochester, was brought to Avista Hospital
by his parents after they found him non-responsive in his crib around 6
a.m. Tuesday.
Hospital workers tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead
shortly after his arrival at around 6:45 a.m.
Investigators say the ruling on the cause of death from the Boulder
County Coroner's Office makes them believe it was a homicide. They did
not release the cause of death, but did say the death was intentional.
9NEWS spoke with a neighbor of the Rochesters and she says she
believes Stephanie Rochester had postpartum depression.
"I'm in shock. I know that she had some postpartum depression. It
didn't seem terrible. So if this is true, her postpartum got really bad
really fast and she turned into someone she's not on an everyday basis.
She's a very sweet woman and she loved her baby. He was cared for and
loved and cuddled. He had a very good life every day," Heather Craig
said.
Dr. Susan Heitler is a clinical psychologist at Rose Medical Center.
She says there are different levels of postpartum depression. She
estimates about 20 percent of women feel depressed several days a week.
A small group has a deeper depression and a "miniscule" number go
into psychotic episodes, according to Heitler.
She says it is possible to hide the extent of the pain.
"Some people who are in many ways healthy, have that ability to carry
on even though inside they're suffering," Heitler said. "If the
psychosis is a paranoid psychosis, the way paranoia works is a person
fixates, 'He's my problem, she's my problem; the baby is my problem.'
Once they get that answer, the answer, the scapegoat actually enables
them to function better in the rest of their lives."
"I don't know what happens with postpartum, I didn't really have it,
but it's real and whatever it is it changed, can change people," Craig
said. "Because I think who she was as a mother on an everyday basis was a
wonderful person who would never hurt her child."
Heitler says even though our natural inclination is to shy away from
the situation, if anyone ever says, "I'm gonna kill you, I'm gonna kill
myself," you should ask more questions.
She adds that if a new mom feels sad for more than a few days, they
should get help. One talk with a professional counselor can help.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Rochester faces a mandatory life
sentence or the death penalty. If convicted of child abuse resulting in
death, the punishment range is eight to 24 years.
Investigators say they do not know if the child had been treated in
the hospital before or had any prior injuries.

A 34-year-old Superior mental health counselor
suspected of killing her 6-month-old son is being held at the Boulder
County Jail on suicide watch and away from other inmates for her own
safety, according to jail officials. Stephanie Rochester will
make her first appearance before a Boulder County District Court judge
Thursday morning. She was booked into the jail at 5:55 p.m.
Tuesday, just hours after she and her husband brought their unresponsive
baby, Rylan, to Avista Hospital in Louisville, where he was pronounced
dead. She's being held on $750,000 bond on suspicion of first-degree
murder and resulting in death.



Neighbors reported that Rochester had mentioned suffering from post-partum depression and sleep
deprivation. Because of the nature of the case, Rochester is
on suicide watch and is being held in segregation from the other inmates
in the women's unit, said Division Chief Larry Hank, who oversees the
jail. "With a small child, we just don't know what the population
will be like," Hank said. "We want to make sure someone doesn't make an
emotional reaction." Until jail deputies feel that Rochester is
safe with the other women, she won't be allowed to mingle with them
during free time, Hank said. "Our duty is to protect her from
others wanting to harm her and to keep her from harming herself," Hank
said. Rochester originally was scheduled to appear Wednesday
afternoon before a Boulder County Court judge at the jail, but Chief
Judge Roxanne Bailin moved her hearing to Thursday before a District
Court judge. Such a change is typical in first-degree murder cases,
according to court officials. Rochester and her husband, Lloyd
Rochester, told police Tuesday that they found Rylan unresponsive in his
crib and brought him to Avista Hospital, where attempts to resuscitate
him were unsuccessful, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.
Detectives are investigating the case as a homicide, even though the
Coroner's Office hasn't ruled on a cause or manner of the infant's death
pending further laboratory tests and investigation. After
obtaining a search warrant Tuesday night, investigators pulled evidence
from the couple's two-story, tan house on Andrew Drive in the Rock Creek
neighborhood of Superior. The house was mostly quiet on Wednesday,
except for a few friends who left flowers on the front stoop. Neighbor
Rachael D'Antonio, 23, dropped a bouquet of sunflowers by the door. She
said she didn't know the couple personally, but "it's a loss for the
family regardless of what happened." "It's just sympathy," she
said. "There's a baby that's not alive. There's a mother and father who
lost a child." According to Stephanie Rochester's Linkedin Web
page, she is a mental health counselor at Children's Hospital in Aurora,
and she earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of
Colorado before getting her master's degree in counseling from Regis
University. A spokeswoman for Children's Hospital wouldn't confirm that
Rochester worked there. According to Lloyd Rochester's Facebook
page, he works at Ericsson Wireless Communications and earned a
bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering from CU. At
a home in Lafayette owned by Lloyd Rochester's father, family members
and friends gathered on Wednesday and declined to comment.
Former Boulder County prosecutor Colette Cribari -- who
successfully prosecuted child abusers Alex and Molly Midyette and Audra
and Joseph Dowler in the deaths of their infant sons -- said she was
surprised at how fast officers arrested Rochester in this case. "It
has to be one of a few things -- she confessed to killing the baby, or
the baby had really serious visible injuries," Cribari said. Typically,
Cribari said, investigators have to wade through significant amounts of
evidence before deciding to arrest one or both parents in a fatal child
abuse case. And, she said, to file a first-degree murder charge,
prosecutors have to believe they can prove that she knew she was causing
the death of the child as she was doing it. "That is a very
difficult charge to prove," she said. "But it depends on what she said."

A Superior woman accused of killing her 6-month-old son will be held
without bail, a Boulder County judge ruled Thursday.

Stephanie Rochester made her initial court appearance on charges of
first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. She wore a
suicide smock and wiped away tears during the proceeding.


Stephanie Rochester wipes away tears during her initial court appearance

on charges of killing her infant son.


On Tuesday night, police say Rochester and her husband brought their
son, Rylan, to Avista Hospital in Louisville after saying they found him
unresponsive in his crib. Efforts to revive the child were
unsuccessful.

The Boulder County Coroner has not yet released the cause of death.

One friend described Rochester as a loving, attentive mom, but also
complained of postpartum depression after the birth of Rylan.

Her next court appearance was scheduled for Monday, that's when prosecutors are
expected to formally present the charges.

An affidavit released Monday describes how a mother from Superior may
have killed her 6-month-old boy.
Stephanie Rochester is quoted in the affidavit as telling authorities
she was afraid that her son Rylan had autism. Rochester stated to
police that she worked for two years as a counselor at Children's
Hospital, felt she could recognize the early signs of autism and she
believed that her son was severely autistic.
The affidavit states that she first tried to suffocate Rylan with a
plastic bag. Rochester told police that she then went downstairs and had
dinner with her husband. When she checked on the child later and found
that he was still breathing, she smothered him with blankets.
Rochester states that she got up at 6 a.m. and thought about killing
herself by starting the car in the garage. She instead went into the
babies room and "just lost it" when she realized what she had done.
Rochester and her husband Lloyd took the unresponsive child to Avista
Medical Center where doctors tried to revive him. He was pronounced
dead at the hospital.
Rochester is being charged with two counts of first-degree murder and
one count of child abuse resulting in death.
Rochester told police that she believed she had post-partum
depression, and her husband mentioned to authorities that she had talked
about committing suicide.

The husband of a Superior woman arrested on
suspicion of smothering their 6-month-old son to death has hired an
attorney, according to a source close to the case, but authorities say
Lloyd Rochester is "not chargeable at this time." Denver attorney
Ronald A. Podboy, according to the source, is representing Lloyd
Rochester, 29, whose wife confessed to police that she killed infant
Rylan by first placing a plastic Target bag over his head and then
putting blankets over his face, according to an arrest affidavit. Stephanie
Rochester, 34, was charged Monday with first-degree murder. Boulder
County District Attorney Stan Garnett said he couldn't comment on
whether Lloyd Rochester might face charges as well. "The only
thing that controls whether we charge anyone is what the evidence is,"
Garnett said. "And we will look at that closely." Nothing that's
come to light so far would lead to charges against the husband, said
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle. "We look at the facts of a case
on a case-by-case basis and make a legal evaluation," he said. "I've
not heard any information that indicates that the husband is chargeable
at this time." Denver defense attorney Scott Robinson said that
whether a spouse is charged depends on how probable it is that he or she
knew about the abuse or threat of harm and could have prevented it. "If
there is joint complicity, they both will be charged," he said. That's
more likely when there's a pattern of persistent abuse or substantial
injuries that were left untreated. "If it happened quickly and
secretly so that the other person would have no way of knowing, then
they wouldn't be charged," he said. "And this case seems to be just that
case. The wife says, 'Oh, let the baby cry it out,' and they go back to
bed." If investigators can show that Lloyd Rochester knew his
wife was thinking about killing their child, Robinson said, that might
change the situation. "How many millions of children survive
their mother's postpartum depression?" he said. "It's simply not logical
to conclude he knew she represented a threat." Robinson said it
only makes sense for Lloyd Rochester to retain an attorney. "Only
a fool would remain unrepresented when there's the possibility of a
charge of homicide or resulting in death," he said. "Lawyers exist for a reason. Innocent
people need lawyers, too." Craig Silverman, a former prosecutor
and defense attorney, said the public -- and jurors -- likely would be
sympathetic to Lloyd Rochester. "One part is the law and the
other part is humanity," he said. "He's a double victim. He's lost his
child, and he's lost his wife." Silverman said, however, that
there are a few odd aspects of the case. Lloyd Rochester, for example,
told detectives that he went into his son's room at one point after his
wife had attempted to smother the baby and thought the child "was
sleeping with his eyes open," the affidavit said. But something
like that doesn't necessarily indicate culpability. "There's an
element of deniability," he said. "Your mind just can't entertain the
possibility that the mother of your child tried to harm him." Even
if Lloyd Rochester has an attorney and doesn't want to talk to
authorities, Silverman said, he also needs to consider that he may be
called as a witness against his wife. There's no marital privilege in
cases of child abuse, he said.

Police say a woman accused of killing her infant son did it because
she believed the boy was autistic and thought his condition would
"ruin" her life.Stephanie Rochester, 34, was charged Monday with
murder in the June 1 suffocation death of her 6-month-old son, Rylan.
According to an affidavit seeking her arrest, Rochester wanted to commit
suicide but didn't want to "burden her husband" with the potentially
autistic boy.The affidavit says that the night before the infant
died, Stephanie and Lloyd Rochester "talked about how they wanted to
have fun in life."
"Stephanie said that she knew they would not have fun while they were
caring for a severely autistic child," according to the affidavit,
written by Boulder County sheriff's Detective Mark Spurgeon.The
woman told police she had worked with autistic children as a hospital
counselor and believed her son had the developmental disorder, which
affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with others.
Pediatricians said Rylan was progressing normally.Stephanie
Rochester's lawyer, Boulder County public defender Megan Ring, did not
immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.Spurgeon
wrote that the night Rylan died, his mother placed three baby blankets
on top of his face, then went downstairs to plan a vacation to Cape Cod
with her husband. She got up around 2:30 a.m. and put more blankets over
the baby, police said.At about 6 a.m., Stephanie Rochester took
the blankets off Rylan's head and "just lost it when she realized what
she had done," according to the affidavit. She and Lloyd Rochester took
Rylan to Avista Hospital in Louisville, where he was pronounced dead.Rochester
was being held on suicide watch. She's due back in court for a status
conference June 24 and is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Sept.
8.Rochester's friends and family, including her mother, were in
the courtroom Monday, but her husband was not.District Attorney
Stan Garnett indicated that he is unlikely to seek
the death penalty in the case.

When the Boulder County Coroner's Office
conducted an autopsy on 6-month-old Rylan Rochester in June,
investigators found him to be a “well-developed and well-nourished”
infant, according to an autopsy report made public today.

The Boulder County Coroner's Office ruled that Rylan died of asphyxia by
suffocation. The manner of his death was homicide, according to the
Coroner's Office. His mother, Stephanie Rochester, was arrested June 1
and charged with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death.


She told detectives that she believed her baby had autism
and that having an autistic child would emotionally and financially “ruin” her life.

When Rylan's parents found the infant
unresponsive and not breathing in his crib early June 1, he was still
warm, according to the infant's autopsy report. He arrived to a local
emergency room about 6:20 a.m. and pronounced dead at 6:45 a.m.

Stephanie Rochester, who worked for two years as a counselor with autistic kids
at Children's Hospital, told investigators that she was convinced Rylan
had autism and that his pediatrician had not taken her concerns
seriously. But a well-baby exam on May 17 indicated the infant was
“developmentally up to date,” according to the autopsy report.

Rochester expressed concerns to a pediatrician about development on May 25,
according to the report, and on May 31, the parents took him to an
urgent care clinic with concerns that the infant was lethargic. They
left before being seen, and Rochester later admitted to investigators
that she intentionally smothered him at various times throughout the
evening May 31 and into the early hours of June 1.

Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8.

A mother from Superior who prosecutors believe murdered her 6-month-old son originally told investigators that she was "just kind of reacting" the night they believe she suffocated the boy.
Prosecutors have charged Stephanie Rochester with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. They believe over the course of a night she tried to suffocate her son Rylan on three separate occasions because, in part, she believed her young boy was autistic. Rochester was back in court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing at the Boulder County Justice Center. During the half-day long hearing prosecutors played a videotape of an interview Rochester gave the day her son died. Rochester appeared quite calm when she told a Boulder County Sheriff's Office investigator how she originally placed a Target bag over the boys head on the evening of May 31. "I pulled it off," she told the investigator. "I couldn't do it.... It was on for like a minute." During the interview Rochester also talked about problems she and her husband were having with their marriage as well as their finances. "I felt like it was my fault," said Rochester at one point. The second suffocation attempt, she said, involved "maybe three" blankets placed over the sleeping boy's head a few hours later. Investigators say Rochester had been looking up painless ways to die on the internet before the attempts. Rochester told the investigator she believed her son "would just fall asleep" once his air flow was cut off. "I just closed the door and walked out," she said. "I just went back downstairs." Once again, however, she said she was stopped by second thoughts. "I just felt like, what am I doing, you know," she said. The final attempt, she said, came around 2:30 a.m. on June 1. "I didn't have a plan," she said. "I was just kind of reacting." Once again, she said she placed blankets over the boy's head. She said she tried to go back to sleep but wasn't able to do so. Shortly after her husband woke up that morning she remembered thinking, "Oh my God. I can't believe I did this." Prosecutors believe Rochester had become convinced her son was autistic despite a number of assurances from doctors. During Wednesday's preliminary hearing it became quite clear that Stephanie and her husband had had a number of disagreements over the health of their son. "She was very fearful of immunizations," Boulder County Detective Chris Fiegel said. "She was very concerned with [Rylan] being autistic." He added that her fears were likely being fueled by what she had been reading over the internet. Detective Fiegel also testified that Stephanie Rochester had thought quite a lot about suicide before the death of her son. "[She] made some reference that she didn't want to be a burden on [her husband]," he said. Stephanie Rochester's husband has not been charged in the death. Near the end of the hearing, Judge Gwyneth Whalen decided there was probable cause to send this case to trial. She also determined that Rochester would remain in custody and was not entitled to bail in this case. Rochester will be back in court on Nov. 5. At that time, she is expected to enter a plea.

Boulder DA won't contest Stephanie Rochester's sanity, drops jury trial

Judge to determine whether Superior woman insane at time of son's killing

Posted: 12/05/2011 01:13:29 PM MST
Stephanie Rochester during a hearing in Boulder District Court last November. (Camera file photo / Mark Leffingwell)

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Stephanie
Rochester, the Superior woman accused of fatally smothering her
6-month-old son Rylan, will not face a jury on first-degree murder and
child abuse charges in connection with the June 2010 death.
Boulder
County District Attorney Stan Garnett announced Monday that he does not
feel prosecutors would be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
Rochester was sane at the time of the killing.
Instead, Garnett
and Rochester's attorneys will request a hearing in front of a Boulder
judge to present evidence of Rochester's insanity to determine whether
she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to
the state mental hospital.
That hearing, which has not yet been
scheduled, will be an abbreviated trial on the murder and abuse charges
before a judge, as opposed to a full trial by jury.
"Given the court's ruling and the state of the evidence at this time, I have
determined that there is not sufficient admissible evidence for the
prosecution to meet its burden of convincing a jury of 12 to reach a
unanimous decision, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Stephanie Rochester
was legally sane when she allegedly killed her infant son," Garnett said
in a prepared statement. "Based on that, I have determined that it is
inappropriate to proceed to a jury trial in this case."
Lloyd Rochester, Stephanie Rochester's ex-husband and Rylan's father, did not
respond to a request for comment made through his attorney Monday.
Two psychiatrists -- one working for the defense team and one working for
the state mental hospital in Pueblo -- both evaluated Rochester and
found her to be insane.
Last December, Rochester pleaded not
guilty by reason of insanity to the murder and child abuse charges, and a
judge recently denied a request to have a third psychiatrist, this time
working for the prosecution, examine her.

Child would 'ruin' her life
During the initial investigation last summer, Rochester told detectives that she
believed her baby, Rylan, was autistic, and that having an autistic
child would emotionally and financially "ruin" her life.
According to a police report, she told detectives that she placed a plastic bag
over Rylan's head. When the infant was still breathing some time later,
she told police she placed blankets over his face.
When Rylan was
unresponsive in the morning, his parents rushed him to Avista Hospital
in Louisville, where he was declared dead June 1, 2010.
Since
pleading not guilty by reason of insanity late last year, Rochester has
spent much of her time at the state hospital in Pueblo.
On one occasion, doctors there refused to release her for a court appearance
in Boulder. They said she was too unstable to travel. Rochester
frequently has appeared in court wearing a suicide-prevention smock.
The district attorney's office pushed hard to have its own expert examine
Rochester and to force the other two doctors to turn over past
examinations so prosecutors could look at their methodology. When
Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill turned down those requests,
prosecutors filed an emergency request asking the state Supreme Court to
intervene. The court declined to hear arguments in the matter.
Garnett said his office pursued "all the mechanisms available to us under
Colorado law" to get at the truth of Rochester's mental state. He made
the decision not to go to a jury trial based on a "realistic analysis"
of the available evidence after discussions with prosecutors and the
victim's family members.
Public defender Megan Ring, who is representing Rochester, could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Extremely high standard
Former Boulder
prosecutor Trip DeMuth, who also has worked as a defense attorney, said
the standard for criminal insanity is extremely high. Serious mental
health issues alone are not sufficient; the defendant must be unable to
tell right from wrong.
At the same time, prosecutors are at a
distinct disadvantage without their own expert being able to examine
Rochester, DeMuth said.
Any critique that expert would make of
the other experts' evaluation or methodology could be countered on
cross-examination by defense attorneys pointing out that the prosecution
expert had never spoken with the defendant.
DeMuth said the
question of whether prosecutors should get to have their own experts
examine defendants is an issue that needs clarification statewide.
Garnett said his office may file an advisory appeal to the Colorado Supreme
Court after Rochester's hearing. The appeal wouldn't have any effect on
the Rochester case but could, if the Supreme Court chooses to hear it,
clarify the rules about psychiatric experts.
http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_19474266

Boulder judge: Stephanie Rochester not guilty by reason of insanity in son's death

By Erica Meltzer, Camera Staff Writer
Posted:   01/11/2012 10:17:11 AM MST

A Boulder County district judge found Stephanie Rochester not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2010 death of her 6-month-old son after listening to more than an hour of testimony from a psychiatrist who said the Superior woman suffered from major depression with psychotic symptoms and saw her son as an "alien, toxic, contaminated being."

Stephanie and Lloyd Rochester rushed little Rylan to Avista Hospital in Louisville on June 1, 2010, after he was found unresponsive in his crib. Doctors were unable to resuscitate him.

Stephanie Rochester told investigators she killed her son because she believed he had autism, and Lloyd Rochester, now her ex-husband, testified at the bench trial Wednesday that she was increasingly obsessed with signs their son was not developing normally -- signs no one else in the family, nor their pediatrician -- saw.

But once she was in custody, Stephanie Rochester told psychiatrists from her defense team and at the state mental health hospital that she had stopped seeing Rylan as her son and felt he was contaminated or possessed in some sense, psychiatrist Richard Martinez testified.

Rochester was charged with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death and entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Two experts -- one for the defense and one for the state mental health hospital -- found her to be legally insane.

After the court denied repeated requests to allow a psychiatrist for the prosecution to do its own examination of Stephanie Rochester, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office decided not to formally contest the insanity plea at a jury trial.

However, on cross-examination, prosecutor Adrian Van Nice pressed Martinez to explain why no one around Rochester realized she had these delusions and why she only expressed her concerns in terms of autism or another developmental delay.

To be legally insane under state law, a defendant must be so "diseased or defective of mind" that she cannot distinguish right from wrong or cannot form intent. If a defendant has a delusion -- for example, that a normal child is not meeting developmental milestones -- that would not justify a criminal action, such as killing the child, and the defendant would still be guilty under state law, despite being mentally ill.

Martinez found Rochester insane and said he believed she suffered from a "misidentification" of Rylan, such that in her mind, he was no longer her son and a human being. For example, he said she stopped breastfeeding because she believed that Rylan was poisonous to her in some way. In another instance, she thought Rylan's hand was a claw, Martinez said.

Rochester believed both that she had to kill her son to get rid of the toxicity that had taken him over and that by killing him, she would be relieving his own suffering from that toxicity, Martinez said.

Martinez said psychotic symptoms can come on very quickly, and Rochester was good at presenting herself as competent and functional. He said he also believes the antidepressant Zoloft, which Rochester had recently started taking, may have contributed to the psychotic episode he believes occurred the night Rochester placed first a plastic bag and then blankets over Rylan's head as he slept.

Lloyd Rochester testified that his wife was an educated and self-aware mental health professional who had always appeared able to recognize harmful ways of thinking.

After the hearing, Lloyd Rochester said he was "disappointed" the case hadn't gone to a jury, and the family was never convinced Stephanie Rochester wasn't malingering or making up her psychotic symptoms. Her initial confession was consistent with her frequently expressed fears of autism, but no one in the family ever saw any indication she saw Rylan as possessed, toxic or poisonous, nor did they notice any other psychotic symptoms.

"We felt in general like the Boulder County justice system bent over backwards to protect Stephanie's rights and didn't focus on the real victim, which was Rylan," Lloyd Rochester said.

"And you," Lloyd Rochester's father, Dick Rochester, added.

Dick Rochester said too much power was placed in the hands of one psychiatrist.

Lloyd Rochester testified that his wife had struggled with an eating disorder but she always seemed capable of recognizing when she wasn't doing well and redirecting herself. Lloyd Rochester said he remembers some moments early in Rylan's life when Stephanie Rochester seemed happy and content as a mother, but as Rylan neared 3 months, she grew increasingly worried he wasn't meeting developmental milestones.

He said she also seemed to see her son as a nuisance at times and as a barrier to returning to her previous diet and exercise regimen.

Lloyd Rochester said Stephanie Rochester told him she "hit rock bottom" while he was out of town on a business trip shortly before Rylan's death and had thought about harming herself and Rylan, but that the moment had passed. He said he made a point of being more involved with his wife's condition, speaking frequently with her about how she was doing and trying to find ways to make life easier for her.

"My trust was in her," Lloyd Rochester said. "She was a mental health counselor, and she knew what to do."

The weekend Rylan died, the couple argued about whether he was progressing normally or not. Lloyd Rochester said he disagreed with his wife, but still listened to her concerns and went with her to doctors' appointments, including an emergency visit to Children's Hospital the night before the baby's death.

He maintained a clear voice throughout his testimony, but emotion broke through as he described Rylan being "warm, sweaty and unresponsive" the morning he died. He also testified that his wife seemed to move slowly as he rushed to get Rylan in the car and leave for the hospital.

Ali Thompson, a detective with the Sheriff's Office who interviewed Stephanie Rochester at the hospital, testified that she said she removed the blankets she had placed over Rylan's head and returned them to the guest bedroom closet before screaming to her husband that something was wrong with the baby.

Van Nice pressed Martinez to explain how Rochester could be so delusional she thought her son was a toxic alien, yet so coherent she could have a pleasant dinner with her husband the night before she killed Rylan and hide the blankets she used to do it the next morning.

Martinez said people suffering from a psychotic episode can move in and out of touch with reality, but ultimately, it's impossible to know exactly what was going on in another person's mind.

Stephanie Rochester was taking medication by the time Martinez interviewed her, and he didn't personally interview her friends and family, relying instead on police reports of earlier interviews. He also viewed video of Rochester's interview with detectives.

Martinez said it would be difficult to fabricate psychotic symptoms convincingly, even for someone with training in mental health, like Stephanie Rochester.

Before the hearing began, Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill asked Rochester how her medications, which include antidepressants and anti-psychotics, affect her thinking. She said she was thinking clearly Wednesday.

Stephanie Rochester wept quietly as Thompson described her confession and Rylan's appearance -- a chubby baby in a onesie, wrapped in a fleece blanket decorated with monkeys, with no signs of external trauma, other than from the resuscitation effort -- when the detective arrived at the hospital, but she stared straight ahead as Martinez described her psychotic symptoms.

She did not take the stand and invoked her right to remain silent.

The courtroom at the Boulder County Justice Center was packed with the friends and family of both Stephanie and Lloyd Rochester. Friends and family of Lloyd Rochester shook their heads in skepticism occasionally as Martinez testified.

Rochester was ordered to be committed to the state mental health hospital until she is determined not to be a danger to herself or others.

Dick Rochester said the family appreciates the support it has received from the community and hopes that people remember Rylan.

"We loved him dearly, and we wish he was here today," Lloyd Rochester said.

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_19719689

Boulder DA appeals Stephanie Rochester ruling, seeks clarity in future cases

By Erica Meltzer, Camera Staff Writer
Posted: 02/15/2012 02:47:24 PM MST
Updated: 02/15/2012 06:04:40 PM MST

The Boulder County District Attorney's Office will appeal a district judge's ruling in the Stephanie Rochester case that found prosecutors could not have their own psychiatric expert examine a defendant who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The appeal will have no effect on the Rochester case. Rather, District Attorney Stan Garnett said he wants the courts to clarify state law for future cases here and around the state.

Rochester, of Superior, killed her 6-month-old son Rylan in 2010 by placing blankets and a plastic bag over his head. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and two psychiatrists -- one working for the defense team and one working for the state mental health hospital -- found Rochester was insane at the time of the killing.

Prosecutors sought to have their own psychiatrist examine Rochester, but Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill turned down the request. The state Supreme Court declined to hear an emergency appeal.

Without a professional opinion with which to counter the testimony of the state psychiatrist, prosecutors decided not to contest Rochester's claim of insanity.

Mulvahill found her not guilty by reason on insanity after a half-day bench trial in January and sentenced her to the state mental health hospital until she is deemed not to be a danger to herself or others.

On Wednesday, Garnett filed a notice of appeal with the Colorado Court of Appeals seeking a ruling on Mulvahill's decision.

"We think that the trial judge made an error in this case," Garnett said. "If we're wrong, we'd like to know that too. I think it's in the public interest to clarify this issue."

Similar legal issues arose in the case of Bruco Eastwood, a man with a history of untreated schizophrenia who shot and wounded two students at Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton.

The judge in that case also denied a request by prosecutors to have a prosecution psychiatric expert examine the defendant, though the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office did take that case to trial. Eastwood was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a jury.

The ruling of the appeals court will not affect the Rochester case, but the court could set a binding precedent on whether prosecutors have the right to have their own psychiatrists examine defendants who claim to have been insane when they committed their crimes.

University of Colorado law professor Pat Furman said experts at the state mental health hospital essentially are the prosecution experts, as both represent the state. Furman said judges have ruled correctly in not allowing prosecutors to have additional experts when they don't like the results from the state hospital.

He suggested it would be more appropriate for prosecutors to ask the Legislature to change the law to give them the ability to have additional experts.

Scott Robinson, a Denver attorney and legal analyst, said that might be exactly where the issue is headed.

Robinson said Colorado prosecutors have long chafed at what they consider an unlevel playing field, while many defense attorneys believe that doctors from the state hospital work for the prosecution. Robinson said he believes the psychiatrists at the state hospital are independent, but nonetheless it is true that they rarely find defendants meet the legal standard for insanity.

Forcing defendants to talk to a prosecution psychiatrist would violate their right not to incriminate themselves, Robinson said. Defendants who use an insanity defense already waive their medical privacy, but that's a separate issue, he said.

Robinson said he expects the courts will rule against Garnett, but prosecutors around the state might use that outcome to lobby for changes in the law. Any new legislation likely would then be appealed to determine its constitutionality.

"I expect we have a three-step process here before it's all said and done," Robinson said.

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_19971758