WOODLAND — Aquelin Crystal Talamantes is not “prison material” and should be hospitalized in a state mental health facility as punishment for last fall’s drowning death of her 5-year-old daughter, a court-appointed psychiatrist testified Friday in Yolo Superior Court.
Dr. Captane Thomson’s testimony launched the sanity phase of the trial for Talamantes, who earlier that day was found guilty of first-degree murder and assault on a child causing death in connection with the Sept. 26, 2013, killing of Tatiana Garcia.
The jury, which had deliberated for about three days before reaching its verdicts, rejected defense attorney Sally Fredericksen’s argument that Talamantes committed second-degree murder at most — that she was in the throes of a severe mental breakdown when she drowned Tatiana in the bathtub of her sister’s Glide Drive home in South Davis, then wrapped the girl’s body in a blanket and trash bag and placed it in the trunk of her car before driving to a relative’s apartment in Sacramento.
Instead, the first-degree murder verdict indicates jurors believed the 29-year-old Talamantes acted willfully, deliberately and with premeditation, as prosecutor Ryan Couzens had argued.
The trial’s sanity phase will determine whether Talamantes serves her time in a locked mental health facility or in state prison, where she would face a sentence of at least 25 years to life. To obtain an insanity verdict, the defense must prove Talamantes suffered from mental disease or defect at the time of the crime, and that it rendered her incapable of knowing her actions were morally or legally wrong.
Thomson, who also testified as a defense witness during the trial’s guilt phase, reiterated Friday his conclusion that Talamantes suffered from “acute paranoid psychosis” at the time of her daughter’s death, believing that by drowning the little girl she was protecting her from police who wanted to cut off her head, as she claimed during a jailhouse evaluation.
“In my opinion she was not able to make reasonable decisions about how to resolve seemingly impossible problems,” said Thomson, who relied upon interviews with the defendant, records from her prior hospitalizations and witness statements in making his diagnosis. “Her mind frame wasn’t there.”
According to Thomson, Talamantes reported that she had been hearing voices “telling her negative stuff” and hadn’t taken her prescribed antipsychotic medications for two months at the time of the drowning because she couldn’t afford the $41 co-payment, although trial testimony showed a search of the Glide Drive home revealed a prescription bottle with six pills left.
If hospitalized, Thomson said, Talamantes would receive far better mental-health treatment than in a prison setting, undergoing extensive monitoring if released back into society.
But Thomson bristled at prosecutor Couzens’ suggestion during cross-examination that such a release could occur in as little as six months, should hospital staff find that Talamantes has embellished her mental-illness symptoms — as Couzens contends she has — and determine she no longer meets the criteria for hospitalization.
“She would no doubt be kept for a significant period of time” in a facility whose security features would make escape nearly impossible, Thomson said. He also described hospital staff as “conservative” and “sensitive” when it comes to releasing patients who have committed a major crime, with some remaining committed longer than they might have been imprisoned.
“So I don’t think that your worries are appropriate in this case,” Thomson told Couzens.
The two men sparred for a time over Talamantes’ actions in the moments after the drowning, with Couzens suggesting that her careful concealment of the body were indications of “unimpaired, goal-oriented behavior” by a supposedly confused and disorganized mind. Thomson, however, viewed her actions as “appropriate.”
“I think she recognized that she had done a horrible thing, certainly,” Thomson said, surmising that Talamantes was preparing her daughter’s body for burial. “People can be in a terribly confused state, and when they realize later what they’ve done, they can try to make amends.”
Couzens also questioned why, after being booked into the Yolo County Jail and resuming her antipsychotic medications, Talamantes continued to report hallucinations and symptoms of mental illness.
“Isn’t that pattern more consistent with just making up the psychosis?” Couzens asked.
“I can’t explain it,” Thomson replied. But he also said he did not suspect Talamantes of faking her illness, taking issue with Couzens’ allegation that she lied about her mental state.
“I don’t like the term,” Thomson said, describing it as “accusatory.”
The trial’s sanity phase resumes Monday in Judge Stephen Mock’s courtroom with testimony from the prosecution’s psychiatry expert.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene