HANNA OVERTON – STILL GUILTY????

“This case boils down to a woman who, basically, tortured a child,” said prosecutor Sandra Eastwood, “becoming so enraged she forced him to have 23 teaspoons of hot pepper and then watching him die in agony.”

 

This much talked about case has put everyone in dilemma if this 29 year old pregnant women, a mother of four, could kill a four year child, who was convicted in Aug’06.

 

“Something was wrong with Andrew. I don’t know exactly how or what happened to him,” said Overton. “Something caused his sodium levels to rise, and it wasn’t me.” JuJu Chang’s report airs on “20/20,”

 

Hanna Overton and her husband Larry, were on the verge of adopting this foster child. Supposedly, that day she had fed Andrew the whole meal. But sometime later he started throwing a tantrum to get more food, so she gave him few dashes of Creole seasoning in a sippy cup of water. But that didn’t calm him, he started vomiting and fell on the floor. Larry and Hanna rushed him to the hospital after an hour and a half, they realised it wasn’t a regular flu. Blood tests soon revealed that he had salt poisoning, or hypernatremia. Andrew’s levels were off the charts — almost double the norm and among the highest ever recorded. The Overtons’ story aroused the suspicions of doctors and investigators. The next day Andrew died and the devout Christian couple, which had no criminal history, became murder suspects. As the investigation continued, authorities developed a theory that Andrew’s death was an intentional poisoning.

 

“We were just waiting for someone to look at it and say ‘This is just an accident,’” Larry Overton told “20/20.” “Instead, we were arrested.”

 

But, backed by a community of fervent supporters they claimed there was a rush to the judgement and the authorities had never considered alternate version of the case. The Overtons said that in the four months Andrew had lived with them, he had exhibited excessive tantrums and obsessive eating. Hannah says she started noticing that Andrew was hoarding food, stealing off the other children’s plates and throwing tantrums after meal time was over. At times, they say, they caught him trying to eat things that weren’t even edible.  The Overtons believe this unexplained behaviour might have been linked to Andrew’s death.

 

The investigators questioned their children and revealed that Andrew was given unusual forms of punishments. Also, when Andrew was rushed to the hospital, the Medical staff testified, he had bruises and scratches on his body, which suggested, it could be a sign of struggle or abuse.

“Could it be that you held his nose, held his neck and made him drink this horrible concoction?” prosecutor Sandra Eastwood asked at trial.

“Absolutely not,” Hannah Overton testified.

 

Andrew’s former foster mother Sharon Hamil testified that the boy seemed perfectly healthy and never exhibited odd or excessive eating. Also, the prosecutors said she could have called the 911, when she saw the little boy in that horrible state.

 

“I think he was in one of his feeding binges, he was having a tantrum, and he was unsupervised for a brief period of time, and I believe that he ingested a large amount of salt.” Moritz has written extensively about salt poisoning and its connection to pica. “When I pulled all the cases of salt poisoning, they all fit the same profile,” he said. “Children within that age group of two to six years of age, in foster care from abusive homes but with behavioural problems, who had history of pica, who by all accounts appeared to have voluntary ingested large amounts of sodium.”

For his part, Moritz doesn’t believe Hannah Overton knew Andrew was dying.

 

To find Hannah guilty, jurors had to believe either of two scenarios — that Hannah force-fed Andrew Burd salt knowing it would kill him or that she neglected to get medical help fast enough knowing that he was dying.

 

Larry Overton also faced a charge of capital murder, but pleaded no contest to negligent homicide in return for five years’ probation.

 

Since Hannah Overton’s trial concluded, Larry Overton has been a single father of five. Once a month, he packs them into the family van and heads north. It’s a 300-mile drive, but no one complains, because for two hours the Overton children visit their mom at a Texas prison, where she hopes her case will be overturned.

For detailed story visit : http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=6098673&page=1