WOODLAND — The Woodland woman accused of killing her infant son told investigators she used drugs throughout her pregnancy and in the days leading up to the baby’s death, according to documents filed recently in Yolo Superior Court.
“Samantha Green admitted to using marijuana during her entire pregnancy with Justice Rees,” Yolo County Sheriff’s Detective Rafael Vicente wrote in an affidavit for a search warrant filed shortly after Green’s Feb. 28 arrest.
Green also acknowledged using methamphetamine during the first five months of her pregnancy and on the day before Justice’s birth, as well as “for three days prior to her going missing and her child having died,” the affidavit says.
Green, 23, is charged with murder and child endangerment in connection with Justice’s death on the bank of a Knights Landing slough, where the 3-week-old infant’s body was found on Feb. 25 following an all-night search.
Now, Green’s public defenders are seeking to quash, or void, the search warrant through which sheriff’s investigators gained access to Green’s medical and psychological records at the Yolo County Jail — an act the defense says violated Green’s privacy rights as well as attorney-client privilege.
A motion to quash filed May 1 takes aim at Vicente, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office that reviewed his affidavit and Judge Samuel McAdam, who approved the warrant without appointing a “special master” to maintain the confidentiality of the documents, which the defense lawyers say is required by law.
Public Defender Tracie Olson has demanded that the 119 pages of records obtained by sheriff’s detectives be returned to the court or destroyed, a request Judge David Rosenberg will consider at a June 2 court hearing.
“It was this initial error, the failing to appoint a special master, that cascaded into a whole host of errors that permitted the release and dissemination of defendant’s privileged records,” compromising Green’s right to a fair trial, Olson wrote in the motion, which included a copy of the search-warrant affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Green told detectives that Frank Rees, her fiancé and Justice’s father, aided in her postnatal methamphetamine use by giving her injections of the drug after mixing it with water — a claim that Rees denies.
“That’s not even how it went down,” Rees, 29, said in an interview outside his Woodland home on Monday, several hours after both he and Green appeared in court for their respective criminal cases.
“She’s a grown woman. Whatever she did she could do by herself. I wasn’t feeding her meth,” said Rees, who faces charges of illegally possessing drugs and ammunition that detectives reported finding in his house during their investigation into Justice’s death.
Yolo County coroner’s officials have not yet determined the baby’s cause of death, but expect to do so soon upon completion of the autopsy report, Chief Deputy Coroner Gina Moya said Monday.
The defense motion does not detail what, if any, critical information investigators gleaned from Green’s medical records, though Vicente noted in his affidavit that “alcohol and/or drugs, when ingested, can affect a person’s mental state and whether he/she knowingly and willingly committed an act.”
“Samantha Green’s medical documents are essential for this criminal investigation to better understand (her) mental and physical state following her arrest,” Vicente wrote.
Documents indicate the search warrant was served on March 6, two days after Green’s arraignment on the involuntary manslaughter and child-endangerment charges the DA’s office initially filed against her. The following week, prosecutors filed a motion to upgrade the manslaughter count to murder.
While the basis for the murder count has not been publicly disclosed, the alleged drug use presents one possible scenario for pursuing the charge, says John E.B. Myers, a criminal law professor at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.
“If she was voluntarily intoxicated with methamphetamine, and she knew that she was supposed to be taking care of a newborn and she exposed the baby to circumstances where the baby could die, that would rise to the level of recklessness necessary for that degree of murder,” Myers said.
“We don’t know if that’s their theory, but you could construct a defensible theory of second-degree murder on those facts.”
In addition to marijuana and methamphetamine, Green told detectives she took the prescription drug BuSpar for anxiety and was experiencing delusions, according to the Vicente affidavit.
“She has seen lights under her bed. She further indicated that Justice Rees was going to eat her,” the detective wrote. “She indicated Frank Rees’ children were telling her about baby killings.
“Through the course of this investigation, it was determined that Frank Rees’ children had watched movies related to a horror/satanic nature.”
Rees also disputed that allegation, saying his four children, all from previous relationships, may have seen a horror movie at another relative’s house, “but not any satanic, demonic (stuff).”
As for Green’s bizarre claims, “I never heard her say anything about that,” he said.
Rees admitted that he was aware of Green’s ongoing marijuana use, but believed she had quit taking methamphetamine until the day of Justice’s birth on Feb. 5, when Green informed him the infant had tested positive for the illicit drug.
“I was super-upset, but I was so overwhelmed with having baby Justice that I just wanted to jump through whatever hoops it took to get it right,” Rees said, referring to a safety plan the family formed with child welfare workers following the birth.
He said Justice had been home for only about four days before Green went missing on Feb. 23, surfacing disheveled and confused the following evening along the Knights Landing slough. She claimed she had been abducted and sexually assaulted.
Detectives arrested her several days later, saying they were unable to substantiate her story. But Rees says he’s doubtful that foul play was involved.
“She loved that baby,” Rees said. “We had a great morning that day (they went missing) — everything was fine, and she was proud of herself. I don’t know what the hell happened.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene