A Yolo Superior Court judge on Tuesday quashed, or voided, a search warrant that gave investigators and county prosecutors access to a murder defendant’s medical and psychological records from the Yolo County Jail.
Judge David Rosenberg granted the defense motion to quash at the latest court hearing for Samantha Green, the 23-year-old Woodland woman accused of killing her infant son, Justice Rees. She is due back in court June 18 for a pre-hearing conference.
Green has been an inmate at the Yolo County Jail since Feb. 28, when Yolo County sheriff’s detectives arrested her on suspicion of causing the 3-week-old baby’s death.
Justice’s body, clad in a onesie, was found on the bank of a Knights Landing slough on Feb. 25 following an all-night search of the area.
Green’s public defenders argued that the release of the medical and psychological records violated Green’s privacy rights as well as attorney-client privilege, ultimately compromising her right to a fair trial. They asked that the 119 pages of documents that were released be either returned to the court or destroyed.
The information contained the jailhouse records was not disclosed in the defense motion.
But it was an attached Sheriff’s Department’s affidavit in support of the search warrant that proved enlightening, revealing that Green allegedly admitted to using marijuana and methamphetamine during her pregnancy, and also took meth during the three days before she and her son went missing from Woodland on Feb. 23.
The affidavit also says Green experienced delusions that her infant son was “going to eat her,” and that Green’s fiancé Frank Rees, Justice’s father, administered methamphetamine to her following her pregnancy. Rees denied the allegations in an interview.
Rees, 29, is due to appear in Yolo Superior Court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing stemming from the alleged discovery of methamphetamine and ammunition in his Woodland home, which he shared with Green, during the investigation into Justice’s death.
Prosecutors still have not revealed the evidence they say supports the murder charge against Green, who previously was charged with involuntary manslaughter until the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to upgrade the count in March.
Justice’s cause of death also has not yet been determined.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene