Mother pleads guilty to murder in drowning of 4-year-old autistic son
By City News Service
A woman who drowned her 4-year-old autistic son in a bathtub, then drove his lifeless body to a police substation where she admitted the crime, pleaded guilty Dec. 27 to second-degree murder.
Patricia Corby, 37, sobbed as she admitted killing her son, Daniel, last March 31.
She will be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on Jan. 28.
According to testimony at a preliminary hearing in September, Corby contemplated suicide before holding her son down in several inches of water until he was lifeless in the family’s Carmel Valley condominium.
District Attorney’s Office Investigator Walter Escobar testified that Corby told him her son — diagnosed with a high likelihood for autism — had made strides in his battle with the developmental disorder but not enough to satisfy her.
Corby, who cared for her son at home, felt she had no time to do anything, Escobar testified.
“She felt like her whole existence was dedicated to her child,” Escobar testified. “She felt like she had no life. She wanted Daniel to be normal.’’
Escobar testified that Corby told him that after she killed her son, she tried to drown herself but couldn’t, realized what she did wrong and drove to the police substation four miles away to turn herself in.
A police officer tried to resuscitate the child, but paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
The victim’s father, who was at work at the time of his son’s death, testified that he and his wife amassed $70,000 in debt getting their son numerous types of treatment.
He testified that he saw no signs that his wife suffered from any mental disease before she killed their son.
Related posts:
- Trial ordered for Carmel Valley woman accused of drowning autistic child in bathtub
- Trial date set for Carmel Valley mother accused of drowning her son
- Trial date set for Carmel Valley mother accused of drowning her son
- Carmel Valley woman pleads not guilty to drowning son
- Carmel Valley mother arrested on suspicion of killing son
Short URL: http://www.delmartimes.net/?p=43881
Posted by Staff
on Dec 29, 2012. Filed under Carmel Valley, Del Mar, News, carmel valley.
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