ANGELYN OGDOC - 2 1/2 yo (2010) - McLean VA

Grandmother throws granddaughter to her death (AP Reports)
November 30th, 2010 6:10 pm ET

McLEAN, Va. - Carmela Dela Rosa, 50, is being held without bond after she threw her 2 1/2-year-old granddaughter from a walkway at a shopping mall that killed her.The toddler, Angelyn Ogdoc died in a hospital after the incident.Investigators say they believe Dela Rosa threw the toddler over a railing and are still trying to find out why. Russell Jackson, who lives in a house directly next door described them as "a happy family" and said Dela Rosa lived with her husband and a son, and that their daughter and granddaughter were frequently at the home."She was a sweet, happy baby," he said, adding that Dela Rosa and her grandchild could often be seen in the window of the home, waiving to passers-by.

Carmela Dela Rosa being held without bond.
Photo: AFP/Getty Photo

www.examiner.com/people-the-news-in-national/grandmother-throws-granddaughter-to-her-death-ap-reports

threw the toddler over a railing and are still trying to find out why

---There is NO credible explanation. Zero. Zip, Nada.
I cannot imagine the horror of the shoppers at the mall.
Even though I don't shop malls often... I would never go again...

A Virginia toddler was walking out of a shopping mall with relatives when her grandmother suddenly flung her over a railing, sending the girl on a fatal plunge to the pavement several stories below, police said Tuesday. Carmela Dela Rosa, 50, of Fairfax was arrested and charged with murder, said prosecutor Ian Rodway. Authorities said interviews with witnesses and Dela Rosa led them to the conclusion that the girl's fall Monday night was no accident, but they couldn't yet explain why the grandmother threw her. The 2½-year-old child, Angelyn Ogdoc, died in a hospital several hours later. She fell from a walkway linking the mall's third floor to the parking garage's sixth floor at Tysons Corner Center in Fairfax, just south of Washington, D.C. Fairfax County police spokeswoman Tawny Wright said Dela Rosa was leaving the mall with the toddler and two other adult relatives when she abruptly picked the girl up and threw her over the railing. Dela Rosa was being held without bond, and a preliminary hearing in the case was set for Jan. 4, Rodway said. Deputy Public Defender Dawn Butorac, who is representing Dela Rosa, declined to comment on the case. No one answered at Dela Rosa's home in Fairfax on Tuesday morning, but neighbor Russell Jackson, 51, described them as "a happy family" and said Dela Rosa lived with her husband and a son and often cared for her granddaughter. "She was a sweet, happy baby," said Jackson, who lives in the rowhouse next door. Dela Rosa would sometimes leave the blinds in the front window open when she was caring for the girl during the day. "You could see them in the window waving at you," he said, adding she would encourage the toddler to throw kisses to her neighbors. Dela Rosa's daughter and granddaughter were frequently at the home, and the group were often seen going on outings as a family, as they did Monday. A few miles away in Falls Church, no one came to the door at the two-story home where the girl lived.

Grandma who threw grandchild mentally ill: police

By Balitang America Staff, ABS-CBN North America Bureau
Posted at 12/03/2010 11:52 AM | Updated as of 12/04/2010 10:15 AM





VIRGINIA – A Filipino grandmother who is in jail for throwing her granddaughter to her death may have been suffering from mental illness for several years.Fairfax County Police said Carmela Dela Rosa picked up 2 ½ year-old Angelyn Ogdoc and threw her over the railing from a sixth story walkway. The girl died due to her injuries several hours later.Law enforcers said her mental and emotional problems could have been a factor.Reports said that just last week, Dela Rosa’s older brother died and was buried in the Philippines. She was unable to go to the funeral. In September, a friend said she took a few weeks away from the family because she was nearing a nervous breakdown.Dela Rosa is said to have had a tense relationship with the toddler’s father, James Ogdoc, to a point where they were not on speaking terms.Law enforcement said there is video footage of the incident, as well as a statement from Dela Rosa, but neither has been released. She is in jail for murder and is expected back in court in January.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/12/03/10/grandma-who-threw-grandchild-mentally-ill-police

I hope they never release the video

A Fairfax County juvenile and domestic relations judge found probable
cause to believe Carmela Dela Rosa murdered her two-year-old
granddaughter at a preliminary hearing in the Fairfax courthouse Friday
afternoon. Dela Rosa remains in the Fairfax jail without bond, and a
grand jury will consider her case for possible indictment on Tuesday.
A full story on the emotional hearing in Fairfax juvenile court,
including the first public comments from the two-year-old's mother and
Dela Rosa's own admission to police, will appear shortly.

Original post
The Fairfax County woman accused of hurling her 2-year-old granddaughter to her death at Tysons Corner is due in court Friday afternoon for her preliminary hearing on a charge of murder. Carmela
Dela Rosa, 50, was with her daughter and granddaughter at Tysons Corner
Center on Nov. 29. Police allege that as the family was walking along a
fifth-floor walkway from the mall to the parking lot, Dela Rosa,
holding her granddaughter Angelyn Ogdoc, stepped to the railing and
dropped Angelyn down.

Angelyn was not killed instantly, and Dela Rosa was initially charged
with malicious wounding. The child died the next day, and the charge
was upgraded to murder.

A preliminary hearing does not involve entering a plea, and only
requires prosecutors to show there is probable cause that a defendant
may have committed a crime. The judge would then certify the case to the
county grand jury for possible indictment.

Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh is handling the
prosecution. Chief Deputy Fairfax Public Defender Dawn M. Butorac is
representing Dela Rosa.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime-scene/tom-jackman/grandmother-charged-in-fatal-m.html

Don't give me any scatology about a "mental" illness, this beotch had been watching the child and never hurt her so it's crap to say she's suffered mental illness for years. She's just a stupid beotch that needs to be dropped from an airplane with no parachute--landing on a concrete pad if possible.

04/08/2011
Tysons grandmother denied bond



Carmela Dela Rosa, the Fairfax County woman accused of dropping her 2-year-old granddaughter to her death from a Tysons Corner walkway last year, was denied bond in court today, TBD and ABC7 report.
The bond denial comes six weeks after Dela Rosa was indicted by a Fairfax grand jury on a murder charge.
The incident in question occurred on Nov. 29, 2010. Dela Rosa was at the Tysons Corner Center mall with her husband, son, daughter and granddaughter, Angelyn Ogdoc.
Angelyn's mother, Kathlyn Ogdoc, testified in a preliminary hearing in February that the family was crossing a fifth-floor skywalk from the mall to the parking lot around 7:20 p.m. when she looked back to see her mother, Dela Rosa, pick Angelyn up. Kathlyn Ogdoc testified that the next time she turned around, she saw Dela Rosa leaning over the skywalk railing, her hands empty.
Angelyn was found severely injured on the pavement below, and died nine hours later.
Mental health issues may have contributed to Dela Rosa’s actions last year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post_now/post/tysons_grandmother_denied_bond/2011/04/08/AFnJ3M2C_blog.html?wprss=rss_homepage

Start of Trial for Grandmother Accused in Toddler Killing
Monday, Sep 26, 2011


The Fairfax woman charged with throwing her 2-year-old granddaughter 50-feet to the child's death faces trial today.

The murder trial for Carmela Dela Rosa is expected to last two weeks.

At a February preliminary hearing in Fairfax County court, a police officer who investigated the incident at Tysons Corner quoted Dela Rosa saying: "Yes, I did it. I threw the baby off."

The mother of the child victim, Mary Kathlyn Ogdoc, told the court she watched Dela Rosa drop her daughter Angelyn from the elevated bridge connecting a parking garage to Tysons Corner Center on Nov. 29.

Prosecutors say Carmela Dela Rosa's conduct was premeditated and that she was not insane when she tossed Angelyn Ogdoc off the sixth-level walkway following a family outing.

Public defender Dawn Butorac has said her client suffers from significant mental illness.

Jury selection in Fairfax County Circuit Court is expected to begin Monday morning, and opening statements may be heard Monday afternoon.


http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/-Start-of-Trial-for-Grandmother-Who-Killed-Toddler-130552328.html

Grandmother Killed Toddler at Tysons Corner for Revenge: Prosecution
Defense says suspect mentally ill and legally insane

Monday, Sep 26, 2011


The November death of a toddler at Tysons Corner Center was an act of revenge by the child’s grandmother, the prosecution said in opening statements Monday.

A jury was seated and heard opening statements Monday in the trial of 50-year-old Carmela Dela Rosa, accused of killing her 2-year-old granddaughter Angelyn Ogdoc by throwing her off an elevated walkway at the mall.

Dela Rosa hated her son-in-law for getting her daughter pregnant out of wedlock and threw the girl to get even with him, prosecutors said.

"We are about to take a very unpleasant journey together,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said. “We are going to go deep into the dark side of humanity, into the darkest place of the human heart."

Video will show Dela Rosa pausing before picking up the child and throwing her, according to the prosecution.

The defense argued Dela Rosa was mentally ill and legally insane when she allegedly killed Angelyn.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/130596783.html

This is so sad. I hope the grandmother gets the death penalty. How could she take revenge by killing her granddaughter! As a grandmother, I can't imagine how she could do this. I hope justice is served soon.

Woman who killed grandchild says she felt unloved
MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press
Updated 08:40 p.m., Tuesday, September 27, 2011

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A grandmother who threw her 2-year-old granddaughter to her death from a sixth-floor walkway at Virginia's largest shopping mall told detectives in a taped confession that she felt unloved by her family and jealous of the attention her granddaughter received.
More than anything, Carmela dela Rosa told detectives, she was angry at her son-in-law James Ogdoc for taking her daughter away from her and saw killing the infant as a way to get back at him, according to the confession. The tape was played to jurors Tuesday at the woman's murder trial.
"I just saw James through her, through the baby," dela Rosa said in the hour-long videotaped confession to a Fairfax police detective. "I thought about James and I threw her."
Dela Rosa, 50, of Fairfax, Va., acknowledges that she threw her granddaughter, 2-year-old Angelyn Ogdoc, from an elevated pedestrian bridge at Tysons Corner Center last November, in the midst of the busy holiday shopping season. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and her lawyers argue that her diagnosed depression was so severe that she could not distinguish right from wrong.
In her confession, though, dela Rosa explicitly states that what she did was wrong. "I did a terrible thing," she told the detectives. She also admits that her intent at the time was to kill Angelyn and that she hatched the plan several minutes before carrying it out.
She told the detectives that her anger boiled over at her family during a visit to the mall's food court. She first became angry that her husband, son and daughter were speaking to each other in a sort of silent code that excluded her that day.
But what really set her off was a phone call between her daughter and son-in-law. She saw the phone call as an intrusion on her family time.
"Even when she's with us, James is always in the picture," dela Rosa said.
She admitted to detectives that she always disliked James Ogdoc, who was her daughter's high school sweetheart at Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington. The anger became more pronounced when he got dela Rosa's daughter, Mary Kathlyn, pregnant out of wedlock. The couple married just before Angelyn was born in June 2008.
"He took her from me too early. He didn't give her a chance to explore," dela Rosa told the detectives.
But dela Rosa acknowledged that her anger was widespread, and even included jealousy over Angelyn stealing the family's attention from her.
"Everybody loves her," dela Rosa said of Angelyn. "I feel like (my husband) loves her more than me. I feel like there's no more love for me."
Throughout the airing of the confession, dela Rosa sat at the defense table mostly impassive, occasionally fidgeting with her hands and once appearing to wipe away tears as she described on the tape how her husband cajoled her to take her medicine. Twice in the months before she killed the toddler,, dela Rosa attempted suicide — once by taking an overdose of pills and once by driving her car off a steep road in the Shenandoah Mountains.
Earlier in the day, James Ogdoc took the stand and wept as he described watching his daughter die at the hospital, some nine hours after she was thrown from the walkway.
"They had her hooked up to machines checking her vitals, and she passed away," Ogdoc said through sobs. Several jurors wept as well during Ogdoc's testimony, one overcome to the point that she could no longer continue as a juror. The panel now has 13 members instead of 14, with one alternate remaining. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
Ogdoc did not describe overt hostility from his mother-in-law, but said the relationship was icy and strained. He said dela Rosa warned him sternly on several occasions, including at his wedding: "Take care of my daughter."


Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Woman-who-killed-grandchild-says-she-felt-unloved-2190381.php#ixzz1ZDUhZ1G6

Suspect Told Police She Killed Granddaughter to Spite Son-in-Law
Jury sees video in Tysons Corner child murder case
By Julie Carey | Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011

Mall security cameras are meant to capture pictures of things like shoplifting, not murders. But in the second day of Carmela dela Rosa's murder trial, the Tysons Corner Center cameras showed the grandmother toss her 2-year-old granddaughter over a six-story walkway to the pavement below.

The toddler died hours later.

The security camera recording was just one of two critical videos played for the jury today. The other was dela Rosa's confession to police.

Fairfax County detectives questioned the 50-year-old dela Rosa just hours after she threw Angelyn Ogdoc off the elevated walkway.

In the videotape statement, a dry-eyed dela Rosa sips water as she matter-of-factly tells detective Steve Needles, "I just lost it ... I just lost my mind ... I did a terrible thing."

"What did you do that was terrible?" Needles asks.

"I dropped the baby," dela Rosa responds.

"Dropped or threw?” Needles presses.

"I threw the baby," she says.

Dela Rosa is charged with murder in the Nov. 29 death of Angelyn Ogdoc. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

In the videotaped statement, dela Rosa goes on to talk about her motive. She says she never liked the baby's father -- James -- and resented him because her daughter became pregnant and married young, leaving the family.

Dela Rosa says when James phoned his wife as the family had dinner at Tysons that night, it triggered something. Dela Rosa tells detectives she then formed her plan to throw the baby off the walkway.

"When you picked her up, what were you thinking?" Needles asks.

"I thought about James and then I threw her," dela Rosa says.

"Why tonight?"

"I don't know. Maybe because I haven't taken my medicine in a while."

Dela Rosa told detectives her mental condition had worsened in the months leading up to the incident and that she'd tried to kill herself twice.

The mall security video seemed to underscore the prosecution's contention that dela Rosa was not insane and coldly planned to kill little Angelyn. It shows dela Rosa carrying Angelyn as she and her husband, daughter and son start to leave the mall. When her husband tries to open the door for dela Rosa, she urges him to walk ahead. As soon as the family is out the door and onto the elevated walkway, dela Rosa's pace quickens and she walks to the rail and drops Angelyn over the side of the walkway. As the horrified family realizes what's happened and begins to rush to the ground, dela Rosa leans over the side of the rail.

Earlier in the day, the victim's father, James Ogdoc, took the stand and broke down, holding his face in his hands, when prosecutors showed him a photo of his little girl after she'd died at the hospital. The toddler's mother, Kat Ogdoc, watched tearfully from the front row before the judge called a recess to allow James to compose himself. James later testified he had a chilly relationship with dela Rosa but said she never directly expressed her hatred.

The testimony was too much for one juror. Visibly distraught and shaking, she was excused from her service.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/130675303.html

Mom testifies about toddler's mall skywalk slaying

MATTHEW BARAKAT
Published: September 28, 2011

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A woman whose 2-year-old daughter was thrown to her death from a mall's sixth-floor pedestrian bridge sobbed through angry, agonized testimony Wednesday at the trial of her mother, who's charged with murdering the girl.

Mary Kathyln Ogdoc could barely conceal her contempt for her mother, refusing to call Carmela dela Rosa anything but "the defendant" during testimony that concluded the prosecutors' case.
Prosecutors say the 50-year-old dela Rosa killed her granddaughter Angelyn out of lingering hatred for her son-in-law for getting her daughter pregnant out of wedlock. Defense lawyers, meanwhile, argue that dela Rosa suffered from severe depression and was legally insane at the time of the Nov. 29 death.
Ogdoc, 23, told jurors she did not actually see dela Rosa scoop Angelyn up and toss her over the railing, but she witnessed the immediate aftermath, with dela Rosa's arms extended over the side and Angelyn nowhere to be seen. Ogdoc said she had been walking ahead of the two after the family ate dinner at Tysons Corner Center, the state's largest shopping mall.
Ogdoc ran down the six flights of stairs to her daughter, then looked up to the bridge between the mall and a parking deck to see her mother staring down, blank and impassive.
While Ogdoc sobbed through her testimony, dela Rosa sat with her head bowed at the defense table.
Ogdoc described a frosty relationship with her mother that grew worse after she became pregnant out of wedlock at age 19 with James Ogdoc, whom she married just before Angelyn was born.
During Wednesday's testimony, Ogdoc read a birthday card she received from her mother on her 21st birthday, in which dela Rosa wrote "I feel very betrayed and disappointed with what you have done" by getting pregnant.
Ogdoc's testimony came a day after the jury heard a videotaped confession from dela Rosa to detectives in which she said she tossed Angelyn off the bridge primarily to exact revenge on her son-in-law, whom she blamed for breaking up her own family. Dela Rosa also acknowledged harboring jealousy toward Angelyn for stealing the family's love away from her. The jury also saw surveillance video showing dela Rosa deliberately tossing the girl off the 45-foot walkway.
The first defense witness was dela Rosa's husband, Leandro dela Rosa, who described his wife's bouts with depression over the years. He said the illness got worse in the months before Angelyn's death, including two suicide attempts. After the second attempt, in which dela Rosa drove off the road down a steep hill in the Shenandoah mountains, dela Rosa spent several days at a psychiatric hospital in Winchester. But Leandro dela Rosa said he never received a "strong recommendation" that his wife be hospitalized long term, and she was enrolled in outpatient therapy instead.
In the days leading up to the Nov. 29 killing, dela Rosa became even more withdrawn, going days without bathing until prompted by family members and refusing to get on a plane to the Philippines for her brother's funeral, even after they had bought the tickets. Leandro dela Rosa said his wife would take hours to respond to questions or make simple decisions, and became hysterical when he would leave for work because she did not want to be alone. Once she hid the car keys, and once she pulled a knife on him as he tried to leave the house, he said.
Dela Rosa faces up to life in prison. The defense expects to call a series of health professionals Thursday to talk about dela Rosa's mental illness. The prosecution's mental-health expert, who has not yet testified, does not believe dela Rosa was legally insane, a standard that requires a defendant either be incapable of distinguishing right from wrong or be incapable of understanding the nature and consequence of their actions.


Read more: http://newsok.com/mom-testifies-about-toddlers-mall-skywalk-slaying/article/feed/301716#ixzz1ZLZqqpwb

Psychiatrists Testify in Tysons Toddler Death Trial
Friends, family testify to suspect's love of slain granddaughter
By Julie Carey | Thursday, Sep 29, 2011

Friends and family testified for the defense Thursday in the trial of a woman accused of killing her 2-year-old grand-daughter outside Tysons Corner Center.

Lawyers for Carmen dela Rosa say she's not responsible for her actions last November, and in court Thursday, new details emerged about the relationship dela Rosa had with the child.

"My lovey" was the pet name friends and relatives said Carmela dela Rosa had for her granddaughter. Her cousin, Olga Achacoso, testified that dela Rosa was once "a proud grandmother, always saying, ‘Look how beautiful Angelyn is. She is so adorable.’"

But that cousin and others close to dela Rosa testified the suspect plunged into a deep depression.

"She's not the same Carmela anymore," thought one lifelong friend, who talked to dela Rosa by phone just days before the grandmother threw Angelyn Ogdoc off an elevated Tysons walkway.

Friend Susan Bogay recalled another depression in 2008, when dela Rosa suspected her teenage daughter, Kat, was pregnant with Angelyn. Dela Rosa called crying, exclaiming, “Oh my God! If she’s pregnant, I think I'm going to kill myself. I'm not a good mom."

Dela Rosa tried to kill herself twice in the months before the mall incident.

A succession of dela Rosa's doctors and psychiatrists who treated her after her suicide attempts and after Angelyn’s death also testified Thursday. Dr. Cynthia Gauss is among those who diagnosed major depressive disorder, but she and others say dela Rosa did not exhibit psychotic symptoms. One psychologist who assessed dela Rosa at the adult detention center after her arrest testified that “she didn't seem to know why she was here and what was going on around her."

Another psychologist at the jail said dela Rosa didn't initially respond to questions and she had to ask a jail guard to touch her to rouse her. The defense hopes that testimony bolsters its claim that dela Rosa was unaware of what she was doing when she threw Angelyn over the railing.

Prosecutors say dela Rosa's videotaped confession shows she planned the crime to get even with her son-in-law, whom she resented for her daughter’s out of wedlock pregnancy and for taking Kat from the family.

Dela Rosa is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial is expected to go to the jury next week.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Psychiatrists-Testify-in-Tysons-Toddler-Death-Trial-130822583.html

Psychologist: Carmela Dela Rosa Did Not Have Psychosis In August in killing of Angelyn Ogdoc, two and half year old baby and grandchild, Angelyn Ogoc, she admited she threw off the skybridge at Tyson's Corner Mall
9:19 PM, Sep 30, 2011

FAIRFAX, Va. (WUSA) -- The jury in the murder trial of Carmela dela Rosa has seen graphic evidence of her alleged crime, including the video surveillance that shows her throwing her granddaughter off a 45-foot high pedestrian bridge at Tyson's Corner on November 29, 2010.

Two year old Angelyn Ogdoc died in the hospital the next morning.

The jury watched as the baby's 23 year old parents sobbed on the witness stand recounting the horrific incident.


And jurors saw the chilling video-taped interview with dela Rosa hours after the baby's fall. She's calm, and coherent as she acknowledge what she did and shows no remorse. She says she never liked her son-in-law because he got her 19 year daughter pregnant, and thinks she threw his baby off the bridge to hurt him.

Dela Rosa is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. Testimony about her mental illness and suicide attempts came from several doctors. Psychiatrist Dr. Faisal Awadelkarim says her major depression could have easily clouded her judgement.

But to prove insanity, the defense must show she didn't know what she was doing at the time of the event, and that will be difficult because of all the evidence in the case, says former Commonwealth's attorney Bob Horan.

"There's so much factual evidence concerning the actual behavior. I had dozens of insanity defenses when I was a prosecutor. Every one of them, there was factual evidence out there to show that the person knew what they were doing," said Horan.

In testimony Thursday, doctors said Carmela dela Rosa had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and had four suicide attempts last year. She was hospitalized last year after one attempt and tried to kill herself two months before throwing her granddaughter Angelyn Ogdoc off the bridge.

A cousin testified that 50-year-old dela Rosa said she wanted to kill herself to spare her family pain. A friend of dela Rosa said she became depressed and suicidal when her daughter got pregnant.

Last november, dela Rosa's brother died, and her depression resurfaced. Long time friend Susan Bugay said she called her a few days before the baby was killed and said Dela Rosa was
confused, erratic and strange on the telephone.

After Angelyn Ogdoc was killed, a jail clinical psychologist saw dela Rosa. He said he found it odd she urinated in front of two male police officers.

Dr. Colleen Martin, another psychologist who saw dela Rosa after the incident said, "She didn't seem to have a clear understanding of why she was there and what was going on around her."

But Bob Horan doesn't buy it. He said, "Lots of people are depressed. The law doesn't say if you're depressed you can kill somebody. The law says you've got to be depressed to the point where you don't right from wrong. You don't know the nature of what it is you're doing," says Horan, who faced numerous insanity defenses in his 40 years as the chief prosecutor in Fairfax County.

A psychologist recommended dela Rosa be treated in a partial hospitalization day treatment center. Her co-pay would have been $100 a day. She and husband declined the treatment.

Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond Morrough says dela Rosa was motivated by anger at her son-in-law for getting her daughter pregnant out of wedlock. They rested their case Wednesday after testimony from the dela Rosa's daughter, who sobbed while describing the aftermath of two-year-old Angelyn's fall.

Dela Rosa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
She faces up to life in prison if convicted.

http://wusa9.com/news/article/169151/158/Psychologist-Carmela-Dela-Rosa-Did-Not-Have-Psychosis-In-August-in-killing-of-Angelyn-Ogdoc-two-and-half-year-old-baby-and-grandchild-Angelyn-Ogoc--she-admited-she-threw-off-the-skybridge-at-Tysons-Corner-Mall

Defense Continues Building Insanity Defense in Tysons Corner Granddaughter Slaying Case
By Julie Carey | Monday, Oct 3, 2011

Testimony resumed Monday in the trial of a Fairfax County, Va., woman accused of killing her 2-year-old granddaughter in November 2010.

Carmela dela Rosa was mad at her son-in-law when she tossed Angelyn Ogdoc off a skywalk at Tysons Corner Center, prosecutors said. She resented the girl’s father for getting her daughter pregnant out of wedlock and marrying her young, according to the prosecution.

Dela Rosa’s defense maintains she was insane at the time and continued to build that case Monday.

Two Shenandoah National Park rangers carried to the stand pictures of dela Rosa's van lodged in an embankment off Skyline Drive. She reportedly tried to commit suicide there in late September 2010.

"I'm so sorry for all the wrong I’ve done,” read a note found near the crash. “I love you all from the bottom of my heart.”

It was the second apparent suicide attempt in the months before dela Rosa was charged in her granddaughters’ death murder.

Dela Rosa’s friends and longtime psychotherapist testified Monday that she's suffered bouts of depression for a decade but that her teenage daughter's pregnancy, a job loss and financial troubles sent her into a tailspin last year.

The second suicide attempt "told me she continued to be severely depressed and was spiraling down,” therapist Jeanne Marquis said. “She had never displayed this behavior before."

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Defense-Continues-Building-Insanity-Defense-in-Tysons-Corner-Granddaughter-Slaying-Case-131013113.html

Defense Expert Presents Essential Elements for Insanity Defense in Tysons Toddler Trial

Tuesday, Oct 4, 2011 | Updated 9:45 PM EDT


Carmela dela Rosa couldn't distinguish between right and wrong and did not understand the consequences of her actions when she when she threw her 2-year-old granddaughter, Angelyn Ogdoc, off a Tysons Corner mall elevated walkway Nov. 29, concluded defense expert Michael Hendricks, a psychologist hired to evaluate the defendant. While he didn't declare dela Rosa insane, he laid out the elements essential for an insanity defense under Virginia law.

Hendricks spent two days with dela Rosa last February, more than two months after she was jailed and charged with murder in her granddaughter’s death. He diagnosed her with recurrent major depressive disorder with psychotic features.

"She was often slow to respond," Hendricks testified about the interview. "She spoke softly. Sometimes she didn't give me any response. It was almost like she couldn’t form the words."

Hendricks testified dela Rosa's deteriorating mental health last fall, including two suicide attempts in the months before the Tysons incident, led her to experience a type of psychosis that night. She believed her family was isolating her and secretly communicating to each other with special eye gestures. He also testified the defendant became hyper-focused on her son-in-law, James Ogdoc, whom she'd long blamed for getting her daughter pregnant before the couple married.

"She was getting more and more focused on her anger toward James and began thinking about Angelyn as looking more like James and hurting Angelyn as a way of getting back at him," Hendricks said.

He said Dela Rosa told him she first considered throwing Angelyn off the walkway as she watched the little girl play with the mall's electronic door, but something held her back. Later, as the family left the mall, she acted.

Hendricks said he was surprised "when I asked her what she intended to happen to Angelyn and she replied she hadn't intended her to get hurt at all."

Hendricks was also asked about dela Rosa's videotaped confession, in which she matter-of-factly described the crime to detectives. Her demeanor indicates dela Rosa was still in a delusional state, Hendricks said.

In cross examination, prosecutor Ray Morrogh suggested Hendricks had changed his diagnosis since his original report. Said Morrogh,

"Delusions were never mentioned," Morrogh said.

Hendricks agreed.

“So you're not saying she had any delusions on Nov. 29?” Morrogh asked.

"No overt delusions,” Hendricks replied.

"And no hallucinations?” Morrogh asked.

"No," Hendricks said.

Morrogh repeatedly challenged Hendricks’s conclusion that dela Rosa didn't understand the consequence of dropping Angelyn.

"Isn't it true that her letting her husband go ahead of her provides guidance that she knew she was about to do something wrong and didn't want to be stopped?" Morrogh asked.

"Not that she didn't want to be stopped,” Hendricks said. “She contemplated what she was about to do,"

"She was capable of understanding the consequences of throwing the baby off?" Morrogh pressed.

"I don't think that she was capable of understanding the consequences because of her constricted thinking," Hendricks said.

"Don't a lot of people who do bad things not consider the consequences?" the prosecutor asked.

"Sure," the witness said.

Morrogh also took aim at Hendricks’s finding that dela Rosa didn't know right from wrong at the time of the incident.

"She told the police she knew wrong from right?" he asked.

"Yes," Hendricks answered.

Testimony will conclude tomorrow and closing arguments are expected.

Carmela dela Rosa will not take the stand.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Defense-Expert-Presents-Essential-Elements-for-Insanity-Defense-in-Tysons-Toddler-Trial-131112843.html

Expert Witness Undercuts Carmen dela Rosa's Insanity Defense in Court
By Julie Carey and Tim Persinko | Wednesday, Oct 5, 2011 | Updated 8:36 PM EDT

Jurors in Fairfax County heard testimony Wednesday from the prosecution's mental health expert in the murder trial of Carmen dela Rosa.

The psychologist Stanton Samenow testified that in his opinion dela Rosa could tell the difference between right and wrong, undercutting her legal team's central defense.

When asked by the prosecutor whether he thought dela Rosa was a person out of touch with reality, Samenow replied, "Absolutely not."

"This is a woman who wanted things on her terms," Samenow said, "and when they did not go her way, she was angry."

Samenow interviewed dela Rosa for 10 hours over four days and also interviewed the woman's family.


He characterized dela Rosa' relationship with her family as "angry, uncompromising, unforgiving and difficult."

As evidence of these strained relations, Samenow told the court that dela Rosa once pulled a knife on her husband because she did not want him to leave for work. The psychologist also said dela Rosa felt lasting feelings of anger and betrayal towards her daughter because her teen pregnancy. The grandmother felt jealous, in his opinion, of the attention that the 2-year-old received in the household.

The psychologist did think that dela Rosa had a borderline personality disorder. However, he was emphatic that she was not psychotic, contradicting her legal team's insanity defense.

According to Samenow, dela Rosa had entertained thoughts of killing her granddaughter earlier in the evening during the family's visit to Tysons Corner but initially decided to wait. He said she seemed to be thinking rationally when she threw the toddler off a raised walkway.

"I asked, 'Would you have thrown the baby off if a police officer was standing nearly?' and she said, 'Of course not,'" Samenow testified.

In cross examination, the defense drew out of Samenow that in the 40 years he has served as an expert witness, he has made only one insanity finding.

Accused of offering an evaluation partial to the prosecution, Samenow responded, "I object to that characterization that I'm a hired gun."

The juror heard closing arguments Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutor Ray Morrogh called the incident "an evil choice, and said that when things don't go dela Rosa's way, she isolates herself or gets rid of the person.

"This is not something she chose to do," defense attorney Dawn Butorac argued. "It's going on inside her head. She could not control it."

Jurors deliberated until about 6:30 p.m. They will resume deliberations in the morning.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/131162203.html

Grandmother Guilty in Toddler's Death at Tysons Corner
Thursday, Oct 6, 2011 | Updated 8:43 PM EDT

A jury found a Virginia woman guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year-old granddaughter, News4's Julie Carey reported.

The jury recommended a sentence of 35 years in prison for Carmela dela Rosa. The prosecution sought a life sentence.

Dela Rosa threw Angelyn Ogdoc off the sixth-level walkway connecting a parking garage to Tysons Corner Center on Nov. 29. The toddler died hours later.

Dela Rosa's defense tried to prove she was mentally ill and legally insane at the time. Dela Rosa claimed she did not know right from wrong when she threw Angelyn.

Dela Rosa intentionally killed the child out of anger toward James Ogdoc, her son-in-law, prosecutors argued. She did not forgive him for getting her daughter pregnant out of wedlock.

Dela Rosa confessed to police after the incident. In the videotape of her statement, dela Rosa said that when Ogdoc called his wife as she dined with family at Tysons Corner that night, it triggered something in her and she formed the plan to throw Angelyn off the walkway. She told detectives that she saw Angelyn as a way to get back at her son-in-law.

Mall security video showed dela Rosa carrying Angelyn out of the mall after urging everyone to go ahead of her then going to the rail to drop the girl.

Dela Rosa twice attempted suicide in the months leading up to the incident. Friends and her longtime psychotherapist testified that dela Rosa suffered bouts of depression for a decade but went into a tailspin last year after her daughter's pregnancy. Public defender Dawn Butorac argued that dela Rosa was a different woman in her depressive episodes, withdrawn and "afraid of the world" to the point that she regularly refused to leave the house.

The judge will sentence dela Rosa in January. The judge can reduce the sentence from 35 years but can't exceed the jury's recommendation.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/131262754.html

Judge Releases Video of Convicted Tysons Toddler Killer's Police Interview
Saturday, Oct 8, 2011 | Updated 9:58 AM EDT


A judge released video evidence from the trial of a woman who threw her granddaughter off an elevated walkway at Tysons Corner.

A jury convicted Carmela dela Rosa Thursday of first-degree murder for throwing 2-year-old Angelyn Ogdoc to her death in November.

In a videotaped confession to police, dela Rosa said that she "just lost it" and did a "terrible thing."

“I lost my mind,” she said.

Dela Rosa's defense had claimed she didn't know right from wrong, but the jury rejected the insanity defense.

Dela Rosa intentionally killed the child out of anger toward James Ogdoc, her son-in-law, prosecutors argued. She did not forgive him for getting her daughter pregnant out of wedlock.

In the videotaped confession, dela Rosa also said she was jealous of the attention Angelyn received.

“Everybody loves her,” she said.

The judge also released surveillance video from the mall of the family arriving at the mall for dinner and leaving, with dela Rosa carrying the child, just before dropping her off the walkway.

The jury recommended a sentence of 35 years in prison for Carmela dela Rosa. The prosecution sought a life sentence. The judge will issue a sentence in January. The crime carries a minimum of 20 years.


http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Convicted-Granddaughter-Killer-I-Lost-My-Mind-131361963.html

Public defender Dawn Butorac did her best to convince the jury that
Carmela dela Rosa was insane when she scooped up her 2-year-old
granddaughter and tossed her over a parking-garage railing 44 feet to
her death.

But Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh
just didn’t buy it. In his closing argument last week to the jury
trying the 50-year-old Fairfax woman for first-degree murder, he said,
“This isn’t insanity. It’s depravity.”

In the end, following a
weeklong trial in Circuit Court, on Oct. 6, the jury of eight men and
four women agreed, finding Dela Rosa guilty of first-degree murder and
recommending she be sentenced to 35 years in prison. In January, she’ll
learn her punishment.

The tragedy occurred the evening of Nov.
29, 2010, on a sixth-floor, outdoor walkway leading from the food court
to a parking garage at the Tysons Corner Center. The child, Angelyn
Ogdoc, was rushed to Inova Fairfax Hospital in critical condition and
died there, around 4:30 a.m., the next morning.

During the course
of Dela Rosa’s trial, it was revealed that she harbored bitter
animosity toward her son-in-law, James Ocdoc, for getting her daughter
Kathlyn pregnant with Angelyn at age 19 before the couple wed. Although
they later married and were happy, Dela Rosa never forgave James.

Her
anger even kept her from attending Angelyn’s first-birthday party and
led to depression and suicide attempts. Through it all, testified
clinical psychologist Stanton Samenow, a pattern emerged, one showing a
selfish woman who considered her feelings more important than anyone
else’s.

When Dela Rosa tried to kill herself, he said, she was
“self-centered” in that she didn’t think about the impact it would have
on her family. And after examining her, talking to witnesses and reading
“voluminous” medical documents, said Samenow, he wrote that she’d done
everything she could to drive away her son-in-law.

In an
interview following her arrest, which was played in court, she even
admitted to police Det. Steve Needels that she was jealous of the
attention Angelyn got from the family. “Everybody loves her,” she told
him. And when James, who was at work when the rest of the family was
together at the mall, that night, called his wife at the shopping
center, it was the final straw.

“When you picked [Angelyn] up,
what were you thinking of?” Needels asked Dela Rosa. She replied, “I was
thinking about James.” And not once during her lengthy interview with
the detective did she inquire about her granddaughter’s condition.
Angelyn died about six hours later.

In court, Samenow testified
that Dela Rosa complained about being “betrayed and disappointed”
because of the child. “But she’s the one who pushed people away,” he
said. “People couldn’t live up to her often-unrealistic expectations.
When having a major depressive episode, she isolated herself. She wasn’t
a very social person.”

He said she had “a clear, personality
disorder [and] had it for many, many years. She was uncompromising and
opinionated.” In fact, said Samenow, Dela Rosa’s husband had almost
separated from her because of her attitude about Kathlyn’s pregnancy.
“She was insecure and her behavior ran to extremes.”

Butorac said
some friends and neighbors described Dela Rosa as kind, friendly and
someone who loved her granddaughter. But, countered Samenow, “There’s a
lot of hate in this woman. A person can do good, sincere things; but
inside, there is another set of forces churning.”

Judge Bruce
White told the jurors that, to convict her of first-degree murder, they
had to believe that Dela Rosa killed Angelyn maliciously and that the
crime was willful, deliberate and premeditated. If they found her insane
at the time and believed she didn’t intend the results of her act, or
couldn’t distinguish right from wrong, they were to find her not guilty.

In
her closing argument, Oct. 5, Butorac said Dela Rosa was “a completely
different person when she was in a major depression. This was a tragedy
caused by her mental illness. She had a hard time dealing with things
other people could cope with and move on from.”

Besides being
upset about Kathlyn’s unwed pregnancy for religious reasons, said
Butorac, Dela Rosa didn’t have a college degree and blamed it for her
lack of a better job. So she’d hoped her daughter would get a college
education, instead of becoming pregnant. Showing happy photos of Dela
Rosa and Angelyn together to the jury, Butorac said, “She really did
love her granddaughter.”

She also noted the testimony of defense
witness Michael Hendricks, a clinical psychologist who said someone with
a major depressive disorder could develop psychotic thoughts. And, said
Butorac, “That’s what happened at the end. [Dela Rosa] was in a
downward spiral, far removed from reality.”

But prosecutor
Morrogh said there was no evidence Dela Rosa was psychotic or out of
touch with reality. “She was interacting coherently with her family that
night,” he said. “Every time she had a suicidal episode, she said, ‘I’m
fine; I just lost it.’ She said the same thing that night, right after
she murdered that child.”

He said nothing showed she was
hallucinating and didn’t know the consequences of her act, or that she
was throwing something other than her granddaughter off the footbridge.
“Right afterward, she was OK,” said Morrogh. “Does it make any sense for
her to be insane, one minute, and fine, the next?”

Furthermore,
he said Dela Rosa planned to kill the toddler about five minutes before
she and her husband, daughter and granddaughter exited the mall and
stepped outside. “She stopped at the door and let her husband go first
and then she picked up the child,” said Morrogh. “She was intent on
following through and committed the lowest, possible kind of revenge.”

Regarding
malice, he said, “To throw an innocent child off a bridge is cruel. She
was angry at James, her husband and, basically, at the world, and she
decided to take it out on the child. She wasn’t delusional. Dr. Samenow
told you that, when things don’t go her way, she gets rid of the
problem, and in this case, she threw the problem off the bridge.”

Morrogh
said Dela Rosa fully knew the consequences of her actions and that
Angelyn’s death would devastate her family. “That’s the scariest thing.
she knew what she was doing,” he said. “She made her choice, and her
choice was evil. Life is precious, and I can’t think of anything worse
than the killing of a little girl. We ask you to convict [Dela Rosa] of
first-degree murder.”

The jury deliberated six hours on Oct. 6
before reaching its guilty verdict. Angelyn’s parents then shared their
grief with the jury. Her mother lamented the fact that she’d never see
her daughter start school, and her father said no parent should ever
have to bury their child.

Morrogh asked for a life sentence for
Dela Rosa but, after another hour’s deliberation, the jury recommended
she receive 35 years behind bars. Sentencing is set for Jan. 6, 2012.
Afterward, at a press conference outside the courthouse, he said,
“Juries work hard and do a difficult job, and we respect their
decision.”
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=354874&paper=63&cat=104

A Virginia woman was sentenced Friday to 35 years for throwing her
2-year-old granddaughter off a walkway at a busy shopping mall, a murder
the judge called "almost beyond comprehension."

Carmela dela Rosa, 51, offered a tearful, barely audible apology to her family, saying: "I'm very sorry for what I've done."

Circuit Court Judge Bruce White imposed the full sentence recommended by
the jury that convicted her last year. Under Virginia law, White had
the option to reduce the sentence to the mandatory minimum of 20 years,
but could not go above the jury's recommendation.

Dela Rosa, a naturalized US citizen born in the Philippines, killed her
granddaughter Angelyn Ogdoc at the end of a family outing in November
2010 to Tysons Corner Center.

The evidence at trial showed that she deliberately hung back with
Angelyn as the family exited along a nearly 50-foot (15-meter) skywalk
connecting the mall to a multi-level parking garage, so she could scoop
up Angelyn and toss her over the guardrail without any interference from her family.

In a videotaped confession, dela Rosa told police she killed Angelyn
to get back at her son-in-law for getting her daughter pregnant out of
wedlock and ruining her daughter's opportunities for a better life.

Dela Rosa's lawyer, public defender Dawn Butorac, argued unsuccessfully
that dela Rosa's mental illness severe depression rendered her legally
insane and unable to appreciate the consequences of her actions or
understand right from wrong.

Butorac said she will appeal the verdict, and that she believes the jury
did not fully appreciate the depth of dela Rosa's depression, which had
gotten worse in the year before the murder and led her to attempt
suicide on multiple occasions.

Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrogh said that while it may be more
comforting to believe that a grandmother must be crazy to kill her
grandchild in such a brutal manner, the evidence showed that dela Rosa
was a hateful, spiteful, jealous woman who harbored animosity not only
against her son-in-law but also at Angelyn herself for stealing
attention away from dela Rosa. She admitted exactly that during her
videotaped confession.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10777255