Defendant's mom testifies in baby-dumping trial
FORT WORTH -- A young mother accused of attempting to kill her baby in 2003 by discarding him in a Hurst trash bin suffers from a severe mental illness, her attorney said Tuesday.
Dana Wilson, 25, of Hurst, does not have the ability to care for herself or a child, Ward Maedgen, of Dallas, said in his opening statement to a Tarrant County jury.
"She has limited knowledge. Her IQ is just above mentally retarded," Maedgen said just minutes after prosecutors rested their attempted capital murder case against her. "The evidence will show that she did not intend to kill her baby."
Wilson is accused of trying to kill her newborn son by discarding him in plastic bags and then dumping the bags in a trash bin. The infant, Christopher Dale Rechard, survived, but he suffered severe brain damage, authorities said.
If convicted, Wilson faces a maximum of life in prison. She has been out of jail on bail.
Delbra Wilson, Dana Wilson's mother, testified Tuesday that her daughter had been diagnosed with learning problems by age 5.
Doctors later determined that her daughter had a psychotic illness, Delbra Wilson testified.
Dana Wilson's mother told jurors that her only child has been hospitalized three times in Grapevine and North Richland Hills for her problems in recent years.
"I wanted a young adult," Delbra Wilson said. "I ended up having to make all her decisions."
Delbra Wilson, a former Tarrant County judge, was scheduled to continue on the witness stand Tuesday afternoon as testimony continued in Criminal District Court No. 3 in Fort Worth.
Before her testimony, Dr. Terri Weinman, a Fort Worth neonatologist, testified that Christopher suffered seizures at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth shortly after he was found in the trash bin.
Weinman said Christopher was cold when he arrived at the hospital and that he was not very active.
Doctors later found that Christopher had suffered brain damage.
"An MRI showed that he had multiple areas of brain damage," Weinman said. "And we believed it was caused from a lack of oxygen."
Dana Wilson gave birth to her son Nov. 14, 2003. She had met Christopher's father earlier in the year through an Internet dating service, according to arrest affidavits.
Wilson delivered her baby alone at her Hurst home where she lives with her mother. Christopher's father was not aware that Dana Wilson was pregnant, according to one of Dana Wilson's classmates.
Dana Wilson was attending Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth at the time.
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Posted by Editor at June 22, 2005 05:17 AM
