Two children, three dogs stabbed to death
Macomb, MI (US)Incident Date: Sunday, Feb 4, 2007
County: Macomb
Disposition: Not Charged
Person of Interest: Jennifer Kukla
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
A 30-year-old woman is in custody after confessing to police that she hurt her children.
Police said the woman's two children, ages 5 and 8 years old, were fatally stabbed inside a mobile home off M-59 in Macomb Township, Local 4 reported.
Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said the situation was very graphic, very sad and the officers were left shaken. The scene was "very difficult," Hackel said. "Even the officers were having a hard time with that one. ... That was one that left you with not much sleep last night, that's for sure."
Police were notified around 6:30 p.m. Sunday by the 30-year-old woman's sister after she visited the home.
"When she approached the door, the door was open already," Hackel said. "She called her sister's name, she came out to the door area and she explained that she had harmed the kids."
Hackel said the sister never entered the dwelling. She told police she had visited her sister Saturday night to help her clean the house out of concern for her sister's children, the sheriff said. She reported leaving around 11 p.m.
The stabbings took place late Feb 3 or early Feb 4, Hackel said.
Three of the family's dogs and even a pet mouse were also stabbed repeatedly.
Police have not released a motive for the stabbings, but neighbors told Local 4 the woman was raising her children alone, worked at a McDonald's and had financial problems.
Hackel said the suspect is cooperating with police and has provided them with information about what took place.
"There's a potential where she could harm herself, so we're keeping an eye on her at this point," he said.
The woman is being held in the Macomb County Jail.
Case UpdatesWas Jennifer Kukla temporarily insane and following the instructions of "voices" when she brutally stabbed to death her two young daughters? Or was she merely suffering from mental illness, unable to deal with the stresses of life but still legally responsible for her horrific actions?
Those questions are being deliberated by a Macomb County Circuit Court jury, which Tuesday afternoon began mulling the fate of Kukla, 30, who killed Alexandra, 8, and Ashley, 5, the morning of Feb. 4, hours after telling other people she was hearing demonic voices.
"Voices or choices, that's what you're really here to decide," assistant Macomb prosecutor William Cataldo told the jury in closing arguments. "This whole case is about choices. She chose to kill those children."
Cataldo, chief of homicides for the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office, asked the jury to find her guilty but mentally ill of first-degree, premeditated murder in which she would spend the rest of her life in prison without a chance for parole.
Kukla's attorney, Steven Freers, tried to convince the jury to find his client insane in which she likely would receive years of treatment in a psychiatric center.
Freers said the crux of the case surrounds intent -- his client believed she was helping her children when she stabbed them with a butcher knife multiple times in their necks, saving them from threats made by the voices in her head.
"Her intent was not to kill her children, her intent was to protect them," Freers said. "In her own mind she did not kill them. She thought they would be tortured, raped and they would be eaten."
The jury listened Tuesday to the testimony of the final witness, Lyle Danuloff, the last of three psychologists who unanimously agreed that Kukla was experiencing a brief psychotic episode when she stabbed the children.
"At that time, she was in fact unable to know the wrongfulness of her behavior and unable to conform her behavior to the requirements of the law," Danuloff testified.
But Cataldo contended that Kukla not only chose to kill her "own flesh and blood," she chose to save herself, despite the voices twice telling her to kill herself.
"If you don't do it because it's less painful, that's a conscious decision," Cataldo said. "It wasn't so hard to kill those two children."
Kukla did suffer self-inflicted cuts to her wrist, causing bleeding and requiring medical attention.
Cataldo agreed that Kukla suffered from mental illness but argued that her condition did not rise to insanity.
Two of the three psychologists who testified -- Charles Clark and George Watson -- said Kukla's 12-hour incident of insanity is extremely rare. Of his evaluations of more than 1,100 defendants, Watson said only 64 have resulted in courtroom insanity declaration. And of that 5.8 percent, he and Clark agreed that fewer than 10 percent of those declared insane suffered psychosis for only a few hours.
Kukla told authorities that she began suffering delusions and hallucinations during the early nighttime hours of Saturday, Feb. 3, when her sister, Lauren Russell, and two of her friends came to clean her home in Hometown Macomb park, north of Hall Road, in Macomb Township. Kukla said she was worried that Children's Protective Services was going to visit her home soon and feared her children would be taken away from her.
Because of financial problems, the single mother had trouble at times keeping up with utility bills, as child support from the two fathers lacked. In the day or two before the killings, the pipes at her home froze, and the unit had no water at the time of the slayings. The furnace had broken down, and her ex-boyfriend fixed it Feb. 3.
Kukla worked as an assistant manager at the McDonald's restaurant at 23 Mile and Romeo Plank roads.
Several witnesses testified that despite her problems, Kukla was a good mother who kept good care of the girls. Kukla's neighbor, Rhonda Santos, described the children as "beautiful" and well-behaved.
Kukla told people the night of Feb. 3 that she had been hypnotized in the past and forced by people in a gang or biker gang to kill people. She told her sister she suspected she had not given birth to her daughters but rather kidnapped them.
Psychologists Clark and Watson testified that Kukla's alcohol abuse and family history of mental illness didn't cause but may have contributed to her actions.
Kukla admitted she drank about a 12-pack of beer a day. On that night, testimony varied on her beer consumption.
Kukla's mother, who died about a year before the slayings, had a history of mental problems and had been hospitalized for mental illness for about a month in recent years. When she was a girl, Kukla's mother had chased her around their yard with a butcher's knife, according to testimony.
During the night of Feb. 3 and 4, Kukla and the two children slept on a mattress on the floor in the girl's bedroom. Kukla said she slept only a couple of hours and held the knife because she feared for her children.
On the morning of the slayings, Kukla dressed her children for school shortly after 7:30 a.m. even though it was a Sunday and walked down the street a short distance before returning. She said she wanted to call her father but didn't have a phone.
She killed the children around 8 a.m. and sat in the mobile home until Russell arrived shortly after 6 p.m.
Kukla told psychologists she didn't remember hearing voices during the killings.
After the killings, Kukla stabbed to death an adult dog and two puppies in the home. She killed a pet mouse in an aquarium by breaking its neck.
In arguing against insanity, Cataldo pointed out that Kukla showed sanity because she realized the impact of her actions. She told her sister and the first police officer on the scene, sheriff's Sgt. Lori Misch, that she was "going to hell" for her actions and told Misch, "There is a special place in hell for people like me."
Cataldo during the trial never said Kukla was a liar or faking insanity, but he alluded to it. He pointed out that the voices allegedly heard by Kukla are all because of "self-reporting."
Psychologist Clark, however, countered that he reviewed the police and psychological reports and was convinced that Kukla told the truth. He said there were "remarkable consistencies" and "no essential change in any respect" in her many statements.
Clark testified that Kukla's urge to kill was as strong as the urge for someone to fight back against being assaulted.
Psychologist Danuloff said he was surprised that Clark testified for the defense because Clark has a reputation as supporting the prosecution's side in cases. Clark is the former director of the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti.
Following closing arguments, county Prosecutor Eric Smith called the killings "probably the most horrific crimes we've had in our county."
He said he dismissed Kukla's insanity plea.
"We're not going to say, 'Here's a free pass. Go get treatment,'" he said. "They (Alexandra and Ashley) are never going to have a Christmas. They never got birthdays. And they were killed by the person who is most supposed to protect them."
The jury is expected to continue deliberating this morning.
To achieve an insanity verdict, Freers had to only prove by "a preponderance of the evidence" that Kukla was insane, not beyond reasonable doubt. Meanwhile, the prosecution must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
If jurors find Kukla insane, she will be sent to the state Center, which will determine whether she would be committed. She could be freed after 60 days, but Freers said that is extremely unlikely and she probably would be held at the Center for years.
If she is found guilty but mentally ill, she will spend the rest of her life in prison but receive extra psychological treatment.
The jury could also come to a verdict of guilty but mentally ill of second-degree murder, which carries a penalty of any number of years up to life.
Freers argued against the second-degree murder option, but Judge Edward Servitto allowed it in jury instructions.
The jury could return a not guilty verdict, but both lawyers said that decision would be inappropriate. | Source: Macomb Daily - Sept 12, 2007
Update posted on Sep 13, 2007 - 5:49PM |
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