TORI and LILI BALL Twin girls - 3 yo (2010) - Fairfield (W of Travis AFB) CA

Woman Arrested On Suspicion Of Fatally Stabbing Twin Daughters

October 14, 2010

FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- Fairfield police arrested a 28-year-old woman Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of fatally stabbing her 3-year-old twin daughters before trying to kill herself and lighting her own apartment on fire Tuesday night.

The woman's 3-year-old daughters were found stabbed to death after firefighters received a 10:40 p.m. Tuesday night call reporting a fire at 3001 N. Texas St.

The woman, identified as Monica Christine McCarrick, was arrested Wednesday as she recovered from injuries at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek where she was listed in critical but stable condition.

McCarrick will be booked at Solano County Jail when she is released from the hospital. McCarrick was arrested on two counts of murder, two counts of child abuse resulting in death, one count of arson and one count of destruction of evidence.

The fire was at apartment 54 at the Summit at Paradise Valley apartment complex, Battalion Chief Steve Trepagnier said.

Witnesses said several residents tried to enter the McCarrick's third-floor apartment as the fire was burning.

One resident, Jennifer Babas, said her husband tried to break through the front door but felt as though there was something heavy blocking it. He and some of his friends then tried to enter through a patio area but couldn't.

Another resident, Quincy Deal, said the occupant of a downstairs unit was able to kick open the front door of the apartment but didn't enter because there was too much smoke.

Both Babas' husband and the downstairs resident said they saw some kind of knife or sword with blood on it when they tried to enter the unit, according to the witnesses.

Police Lt. Darrin Moody said at a news conference Wednesday that the woman had suffered lacerations. He said no one else is suspected in the murders because the apartment's windows and doors had been locked from the inside.

"We can confirm that the deaths were not related to the fire," Assistant Fire Marshal Jerry Clark said Wednesday morning.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, but the building's sprinkler system helped put out the blaze quickly and prevent it from spreading.

"It may have saved lives," Moody said.

The sprinklers triggered an alarm that alerted firefighters, who received a call about the fire from a resident a short time later.

The mother was airlifted to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek for what appeared to be self-inflicted lacerations to "several parts of the body," Clark said.

Investigators are unsure when the stabbings happened, but they appear to have occurred one right after the other, Moody said.

Moody wouldn't say whether the weapon had been recovered or where in the apartment the girls' bodies were found.

Investigators are looking for the twins' father, who was not in the immediate area when the deaths occurred.

McCarrick had been living at the apartment building for less than a month, according to her neighbors. She was seen driving a white Nissan Versa, which was still parked in the apartment complex's parking lot as of Wednesday afternoon.

Both rear windows of the car were rolled down, with two child safety seats in the back and what looked like a pack of cigarettes in the front.

Deal said he saw the car parked horizontally across three spaces on Monday, the day before the incident, which he said looked odd.

Anyone who might have additional information to provide to authorities about this case should contact police Sgt. Joel Orr at (707) 428-7339.

October 20, 2010

Monica Christine McCarrick Fairfield mother charged with killing her twin daughters Tori and Lily Ball



The Solano County coroner’s office confirmed this afternoon that two 3-year-old girls found dead in a burning Fairfield apartment Tuesday night died of multiple stab wounds and cutting wounds.

The girls were identified as Tori and Lily Ball. One of the girls was stabbed in the abdomen, Solano County sheriff’s Lt. Gary Faulkner said. The autopsies were completed today. Their mother, Monica Christine McCarrick, 28, allegedly cut herself and the girls before setting their North Texas Street apartment on fire, Fairfield police said. McCarrick has been arrested for the girls’ murders and is expected to remain at John Muir Hospital through the weekend, Fairfield police Lt. Darrin Moody this afternoon. Firefighters responded to the third-floor apartment at the Summit in Paradise Valley complex at 3001 N. Texas St. around 10:40 a.m. Tuesday when a water sprinkler triggered an alarm.

Several neighbors tried to get into the apartment when they smelled smoke and saw flames, but the front door appeared to be blocked by a heavy object such as a sofa, they said. Fairfield police said the front and siding glass doors and window of the apartment were locked.

One of the would-be rescuers reported seeing a bloody knife or sword inside the apartment. Police have not disclosed any information about the weapon used in the stabbings or any potential reason for the tragedy.

Some neighbors, however, said they found it odd that McCarrick parked her white Nissan Versa across three parking spaces in a carport Monday. The car remained there until Tuesday morning.

Another neighbor said she saw McCarrick sitting alone in the car.

Fairfield Mom Ordered To Stand Trial In Deaths Of Twins




March 15, 2011


FAIRFIELD, Calif. (AP) — A Fairfield mother is facing trial on charges that she murdered her 3-year-old twin girls.

A Solano County judge on Monday ordered that Monica McCarrick be held for trial on charges of murder, child abuse and arson. The Reporter of Vacaville reports that McCarrick wept in the courtroom, as her preliminary hearing concluded.

Authorities say McCarrick stabbed the girls multiple times before attempting to take her own life and set fire to her apartment. Fire and police officials responding to the Oct. 12 blaze found the bodies of the girls, Tori and Lily Ball.

McCarrick has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. She is scheduled to be arraigned again on April 1.

'Woman used samurai sword to butcher her twin daughters, 3, before slashing her own throat'
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 5:03 PM on 18th October 2010
Accused: Monica McCarrick is suspected of stabbing to death her twin daughters Lily and Tori
A young mother is to be charged with murder after her twin three-year-old daughters were hacked to death with a samurai sword.
In horrific details about the double murder and attempted suicide, investigators say Monica McCarrick killed the little girls and then propped their bodies against the front door of the apartment in a bid to prevent rescuers from getting in.
Firefighters made the grim discovery of the girls, Lily and Tori, after being called last week to a fire in a flat where they lived with McCarrick.
The 28-year-old was found near the bodies of the twins with a self-inflicted sword wound to the throat. She will be charged with murder after being released from hospital.
Investigators said the head of one of the girls had almost been decapitated. The other suffered multiple stab wounds to the stomach.
McCarrick then set fire to the flat in Fairfield, California, and placed the lifeless bodies of her daughters against the front door before trying to kill herself.
Neighbours had desperately tried to force their way into the flat after noticing smoke seeping from under the front door and smoke alarms going off.
Traumatising: Investigators outside the Fairfield home where the murder/suicide attempt took place
Andre Douglas was able to break into the third-floor flat through a window and saw the alleged murder weapon on the floor.
'Once I actually got past her room, there was a sword, a bloody katana-style Japanese fighting sword, in the hallway, and a bottle of pills,' he said.
Police do not yet know a motive for the double murder and have been attempting to track down the twin's 38-year-old father Michael Ball.
They have been unable to interview McCarrick in hospital because of her injury.
Police reports show that McCarrick had previous arrests for using drugs. She was also involved in a domestic violence arrest in San Diego.

Scene of horror: An investigator carries a bundle from inside the burned apartment where the bodies of the two little girls were found
One report said McCarrick called her fiancée while the fire alarm was going off. It’s alleged that her fiancée called his mother and told her Monica had ‘lost her mind’.
Police said McCarrick will be charged with two counts of murder when she is released from John Muir Medical Centre. She will also face two counts of child abuse resulting in death, and one count each of arson and destruction of evidence.
Fairfield police lieutenant Darren Moody said it appeared to be a murder-suicide.
'We have no evidence that anyone else was involved,' he told local media. 'The doors and windows were locked from the inside.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1320316/Monica-McCarrick-butchered-twins-samurai-sword-slashing-throat.html#ixzz1MBsdVlaj

obituary with picture of the girls...so sad....

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/signonsandiego/obituary.aspx?n=tori-and-lily-ball&pid=146438884

Ir is hard to imagine. How can a woman do this to two precious, beautiful little girls.

A Fairfield mother accused of killing her twin
daughters before trying to burn down the apartment they shared was given
a trial date in Solano County Superior Court on Wednesday.Shackled
at the waist, Monica McCarrick appeared before Superior Court Judge R.
Michael Smith, who set 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 10, 2012, in the Fairfield
courtroom of Judge Peter B. Foor for a jury trial. McCarrick is charged
with two counts each of murder and child abuse resulting in death.McCarrick
was arrested on Oct. 12, 2010, the victims' birthday, after Fairfield
police and fire crews responded to a blaze at a North Texas Street
apartment where they found the children, Tori and Lily Ball, dead of
multiple stab wounds and McCarrick suffering from apparently
self-inflicted wounds.Smith also set 8:30 a.m. on July 18
in the Fairfield courtroom of Judge E. Bradley Nelson to hear a defense
motion to dismiss one or more counts against McCarrick.
http://www.thereporter.com/ci_18286004?source=most_emailed

Trial delayed for mother accused of killing twin daughters

December 29, 2011

FAIRFIELD — Next month’s scheduled start of a murder trial for a Fairfield mother accused of fatally stabbing and cutting her twin 3-year-old daughters was postponed Thursday until June.
Authorities believe Monica McCarrick killed her daughters, Tori and Lily Ball, on the night of Oct. 12, 2010, in her North Texas Street apartment.
McCarrick, 29, had been scheduled to begin trial Jan. 31. Judge Peter B. Foor postponed the start of the trial Thursday until June 5, 2012.
McCarrick has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. She is in jail without bail.

http://www.dailyrepublic.com/news/crimecourts/trial-delayed-for-mother-accused-of-killing-twin-daughters/

With a jury trial a month away for a Fairfield mother
accused of killing her twin daughters, details of alleged drug use in
jail surfaced during a brief hearing in Solano County Superior Court on
Friday.Monica McCarrick has pleaded not guilty and not guilty
by reason of insanity to two counts each of murder and child abuse
resulting in death. The charges stem from a Oct. 12, 2010 incident in
which Fairfield police and fire crews responded to a blaze at a North
Texas Street apartment, where they found the 3-year-old twins, Tori and
Lily Ball, dead of multiple stab wounds and McCarrick suffering from
apparently self-inflicted wounds.
trial is set for June 5
and attorneys met in the Fairfield courtroom of Judge Peter B. Foor on
Friday to discuss the status of pre-trial filings such as witness lists
and jury instructions.
Prosecuting Deputy District Attorney
Terry Ray announced her witness list might change slightly after
McCarrick suffered an alleged cocaine overdose while in custody. The
incident required her to be transported to NorthBay Hospital for
treatment, Ray said.
Ray went on to state, "Recently there
was an incident, while in custody, where the defendant was arrested for
lack of a better word, for possession of cocaine."
McCarrick is scheduled to return to court at 1:30 p.m. on June 1 for a trial management conference.
http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_20555626/jailhouse-drug-use-alleged-fairfield-baby-slaying-case

Jury: Fairfield mom found guity of first-degree murder in deaths of twin daughters

06/15/2012 02:40:36 PM PDT

A nine-woman, three-man Solano County Superior Court jury deliberated for
less than two hours today before returning a verdict of guilty in the
trial of a Fairfield mother charged with the deaths of her twin 3-year-old daughters in 2010.
The jury ruled that Monica McCarrick, 29, is guilty of murder in the
first degree. Because she has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by
reason of insanity, the case will now move to a sanity phase, in which
the jury will be asked to determine whether she was insane at the time of the killings.

Attorneys gave closing arguments and jurors began deciding the
guilt or innocence of McCarrick earlier this afternoon. She was charged
with two counts of murder with special circumstances and two counts of
assault on a child causing death in relation to the Oct. 12, 2010,
deaths of her twin daughters, Tori and Lily Ball. Prosecutors allege
that McCarrick used a samurai sword to kill the twin girls before
attempting to set their Fairfield apartment on fire and then turn the
sword on herself.

Prosecuting Deputy District Attorney Terry Ray sought the
first-degree convictions, arguing that McCarrick's actions were
premeditated and deliberate.

During the trial, jurors were shown photographs of the apartment
and the twins after their deaths. One of the girls was nearly
decapitated, and both had defensive wounds to their arms and hands which
Ray argued were from McCarrick's slashes with the samurai sword as they
sat helpless in their high chairs.

Ray argued the evidence showed that
McCarrick's attempt to destroy the evidence by setting fire to a closet
next to where she placed the twins' bodies pointed to her guilt.

"She knew what she did, she knew what her act was and she knew it was wrong," Ray said.

McCarrick's defense counsel, Chief Deputy Public Defender Elena
D'Agustino, did little to refute evidence that McCarrick killed the
twins before trying to commit suicide, however, D'Agustino relied on
testimony from friends and family to prove her unstable mind at the time
of the incident.
D'Agustino focused on text messages and phone conversations McCarrick
had with people in the weeks leading up to the deaths in which she
expressed fear that her fiance was going to harm her and her children.

"It's clear that Ms. McCarrick was perceiving things that were not real," she added.

McCarrick's actions were not intentional, premeditated and deliberate, D'Agustino argued.

"I would suggest that had Ms. McCarrick been in her right mind
and been thinking rationally, she would not have done what she did to
her twin daughters in the manner it was done," D'Agustino said.

http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_20867396/jury-fairfield-mom-found-guity-first-degree-murder

Oh there's no doubt she wasn't in her right mind, after all what baby killer is, however, I think the evidence clearly shows she knew what she did was wrong. Not only did she try to destroy evidence but she tried to kill herself, either due to guilt or to avoid punishment. Either way, she was not so far out of her mind to count as insane... I know if the death penalty is an option, but if not I hope for life, no parole.