Yet if anyone was up to the task, most everyone agreed, it was the Overtons, and Hannah in particular. probably to punish his behavior, that then goes into cardiorespiratory arrest.. Did you at any time strike him? Hess asked. We lived in the same neighborhood a few years back and after meeting at the Dog Park, spent some great time together running, kayaking and meeting for a few cold ones at Melitos. Hannah Overton recently reunited with her husband, Larry Overton, since being released on bond last week. After the Overton family heard the news yesterday, they said they celebrated with a family dinner at Hannah's mother's home, "with nothing hanging over our heads.". When a four-year-old from Texas died mysteriously of salt poisoning, his foster mother, Hannah Overton, was charged with capital murder and sent to prison for life. Hannah Overton passed away in Peterborough, Lincolnshire. Hannahs mother and stepfather, Hannah, Larry, and the kids on Mothers Day 2006. Fernandez determined that the boy had died as a result of acute sodium toxicity, with blunt force head trauma as a contributing factor. I am so sorry to hear about Dabney. In the classes they had been required to take by CPS to become adoptive parents, they had been warned that foster children often hoarded food and were more likely to have eating disorders. He acted more like a toddler than a preschooler, they noted; if he wanted an object, he pointed to it and grunted. They had also watched the video of Hess questioning Hannah, during which she described calling a paramedic friend in Oklahoma for guidance when the boys condition deteriorated, and even using her cameras flash to check if his pupils were reactive, but never calling for an ambulance. The Overtons have said they believed he instead had a rare medical conditioncalled hypernatremia that caused the fatal sodium levels. Dabney and I were great friends while I lived in Richmond back in the late 80s - Browder,Russell days. In 2007, Hannah Overton was sentenced to life in prison for the death of her 4-year-old foster son. He is in my thoughts and his family in my prayers. I am so sorry to hear the news. Frantic, Hannah began administering CPR in the backseat. Beginning next year, she will also receive an annuity. The importance of saying "I love you" during COVID-19, Effective ways of dealing with the grieving process, Solutions to show your sympathy safely during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dabney is survived by his sister, Hannah Overton; and nieces Emma and Lizzie Schmidt, all of Tappahannock; a half-sister Mallory Overton McKendry of Jacksonville, Fla.; and his father, Dabney Overton Jr. of Harrisonburg. Dabney was always smiling, no matter what was going on in his life. Hannah was seven when Saenz was arrested in 1984 and charged with a singularly horrific crime: the bludgeoning death of a sixteen-year-old girl whose nude body was discovered at the waters edge on Padre Island. In anticipation of his arrival, Larry built a three-tiered bunk bed for Andrew and the two Overton boys: Isaac, who was seven years old, and Sebastian, who was two. His mother was just sixteen, the file shows, when she gave birth to him in Corpus Christi on July 28, 2002. "We are so excited about all God has done in and through all of this. At 13, he served as a page for the General Assembly of Virginia. Still, the overall impression was a damning one. Andrews preoccupation with eating intensified, and he began getting out of bed at night to forage for food in the kitchen. Todd Yates/Corpus Christi Caller-Times/AP. They had 4 children and were expecting their fifth. My infrequent visits to my home of Richmond were always highlighted when I ran into Dabney and spend some time to catch up with one another. He died at 9:30 p.m. In 2005 the Overtons began to pursue the idea seriously. Hannah R. (Saem) Overton was born c. 1977. Box 70, Millers Tavern, Va.; St. Christopher's School, 711 St. Christopher's Road, Richmond, Va. 23226; or the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 1108 E. Main St. Suite 1600, Richmond, Va. 23219. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. As a frequent witness for the state in child abuse cases, Cortes was not in the habit of reaching out to defense attorneys, but he was so angered by the verdict that he picked up the phone. But law enforcement officials are accustomed to handling child abuse cases, not medical mysteries, and salt poisoning is rare enough that most emergency room doctors will never encounter a case during their careers. Our condolences to his family and friends. Peace be with you, Dabney. She was always smiling, always laughing. As a teenager, she was captivated by missionaries stories of serving in far-flung places, and she began going on group mission trips herself, once venturing as far as Romania. More outspoken was Andrews Sunday school teacher, who sat Hannah and Larry down and told them that he was a troubled kid. Dabney will be missed as one of the "regular" offshore racing crew members at Fishing Bay. Every Easter and Christmas holiday was spent at the Reynosa orphanage, whose wards were primarily the unwanted children of prostitutes who worked the nearby red-light district. This was not a child that came into the office looking well, with a story of, you know, Hes just a tomboy, and he falls and hits himself, Rotta would later testify. Hannah liked the tall, serious-minded student who shared the same hopes she had of creating a life centered on children and Christian outreach. The boys symptoms that afternoonvomiting, chills, and lethargyinitially suggested to the Overtons that he had a routine ailment, like a stomach bug. Overton cites a Bible verse from Hebrews 13:3 on the ministry website to explain its mission: "Remember those in prisonas if you were bound with them! Andrews standard answer whenever he was asked to perform a simple task was Sorry, I cant, but Hannah was heartened one day that summer when he deviated from the script. She found him standing on a stool in the pantry, near the baking ingredients, having pulled something off the shelf. He was a very sweet and kind person. Your family will be in my thoughts and prayers. Yet to find her guilty, theyd had to believe that she knew he would die if she did not get him immediate medical attention. We are grateful for the help and support of so many over the years who contributed to achieving what, for the Overton children, is a joyous result. He was a very quiet and caring man. That perception would throw her other children into the investigation as well. Larry, who was sitting behind her, broke down. Inside the Bro-tastic Party Mansions Upending a Historic Austin Community, The Campaign to Sabotage Texass Public Schools. memorial page for Hannah Ester Hall Overton (1660-1732), Find a Grave Memorial ID 160804572; Burial Details Unknown; . And how had she forced him to choke down the lethal slurry through a sippy cupa drinking container that is, by design, able to release its contents only when sucked on? Absolutely not, Hannah shot back. Overton spent seven years in prison before the Texas Court of Appeals overturned her capital murder charges on September 17, 2014. I remind them that the Lord loves him more than anyone could and he is with Him now and we will see him again someday.. Andrews foster mother, who had provided refuge to roughly three hundred children over three decades, was also supportive. Please allow 24 hours for your entry to be reviewed for appropriate content. Relatives, neighbors, and members of the Overtons church pitched in to look after the kids during Hannahs recovery, but the revolving door of caregivers proved to be difficult for Andrew, who began acting out on a scale they had not seen before. us about an exoneration that we may have missed, Correct an error or add information about an exoneration Dick and Sue Kemper; St. Christopher's School, Share to let others add their own memories and condolences. Hess, who investigated child abuse cases for the police forces family violence unit, had a very different impression of Hannah. Sitting in the courtroom, she tried to explain how she had failed to recognize that Andrews condition was life-threatening. At first, the transition with Andrew went smoothly. Perplexed, Larry installed a baby monitor equipped with a video camera in the boys room so that he and Hannah could observe if Andrew was wandering into the kitchen at night. I was so shocked and saddened to learn today of Dabney's sudden and all too premature death. I shall miss him greatly. Although he hung back when his siblings embraced their parents in group hugs, Larry and Hannah learned that if they asked Andrew to join in, he would do so enthusiastically, throwing his arms around them. Round-trip, the journey is 632 miles. It came as a shock when I got the call from Peter Detlefs letting me know that Dabney had passed away. Hannah Spencer Overton (born Haile) in FamilySearch Family Tree Hannah Overton in U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Hannah Spencer Haile in MyHeritage family trees (Baker Family Site (23andMe)) view all Immediate Family Private ex-spouse Private child Hannah Overton Tiffany daughter Private child Edmond Ware Haile father Irene Margarite Tyler I am a better person for knowing him. She looked after dozens of children, including my grandchildren, and in all the years she was here, I cant recall one negative thing being said about her, the commissions founder, Joe Fauss, told me. . Andrew seems very happy in this home.. In other words, if the jury could not agree conclusively that she had poisoned Andrew, it could still rule that she was guilty of capital murder by omission, or by failure to act. I fear she may have purposely withheld evidence that may have been favorable to Hannah Overtons defense, Jimenez wrote in her letter, which Orr would include in the writ. Please call me at your earliest convenience.. . Hannah, we are all so sorry for the loss of your brother. Although Cortes had been scheduled to testify for the prosecution, he was never put on the witness stand. A block away from the clinic, as they waited at a red light, Andrew stopped breathing. And given that abuse and neglect during the first year of life can profoundly affect behavioral development, they were not surprised that Andrew was different. Larry was charged with injury to a child for failing to get Andrew timely medical attention. If convicted, Hannah would receive an automatic life sentence. He had a speech disorder called echolalia, which is one of the things we see typically in children who have autism spectrum disorders. After your child dies to be told that somebody think its your fault. Advertisement. Andrew was not a normal child, Cortes explained to me. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. By the time Hannah took the stand, jurors appeared to have made up their minds. To never have been producedit was very strange.. He was such a kind person and always had a smile on his face. Gemma Mitchell, a phlebotomist, recalled overhearing Hannah tell medical staff that Andrew had stopped breathing after he was punished. No one could corroborate her story, and under cross-examination, she admitted that she had never told anyone this fact until taking the stand. He touched my heart and those of my dear friends. I plan their birthday parties from here, she told me. In October 2006 a four-year-old from Corpus Christi named Andrew Burd died mysteriously of salt poisoning. As he grasped for the right words to convey the depth of pain a parent feels over the loss of a child, he noticed a row of unfamiliar faces. The children liked to hang out in her room and talk to her, particularly Andrew, who always visited her for an extra hug before bedtime. There was Andrews bedjust a bare piece of plywood, with no mattressand a security camera, as the baby monitor was later called at trial, trained on it. EMTs and hospital staff had vigorously poked and prodded the boy as they attempted to revive him, first at the clinic, then in an ambulance, then at Christus Spohn Hospital, where he was initially taken, and finally at Driscoll, where he was transferred to the intensive care unit. My husband, Tom, and I were deeply saddened to hear of Dabney's sudden passing. Before he left, Haller recalled his saying, You might want to prepare for the media.. (A former pastor of Hannahs had advocated reprimanding children when they were dishonest by putting a single red pepper flake on their tongues.) Right, a photo of Andrew Burd held by Larry Overton. (Like Eastwood, neither Norman nor Jimenez would comment for this article.) If someone was trying to murder Andrew, they would have restrained him and prevented him from drinking water, Moritz subsequently wrote in an affidavit. There was a time when I questioned how God could allow this to happen, she said. She is amazing!". H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping, West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country. The following day, family court judge Carl Lewis awarded temporary custody to Hannahs mother and stepfather. We were in awe.. The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the Newkirk Center for Science & Society at University of California Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law. The Carvers, like most members of Calvary Chapel, never doubted her innocence. Copyright 2023 GRB Studio | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions I realized that it was something serious . The thoughts and prayers of your co-workers are with you and your family. They wed a year later and moved to Corpus Christi. She had been released on bond in December after a Texas appellate court overturned her conviction and life sentence for the death of 4-year-old Andrew Burd, the child Overton and her husband, Larry, were in the process of adopting before he died. An attorney-client relationship will arise between you and our firm only if we specifically agree to act for you. The defense presented the jury with a medical mystery. Pam Rooker. The following week, Hannahwho had no history with CPS and no previous arrests, and had never had so much as a parking ticketwas charged with capital murder. Tell Its somebodys worst nightmare, Hannah Overton told ABC News in an earlier interview. A very special person has been taken from our midst and is and will be greatly missed. In the eyes of law enforcement, Hannah and Larry were not grieving parents but perpetrators of an appalling crime. She reported Andrews unusual eating habits to his adoption supervisor when she visited the Overton home on September 25. He was a Southern Gentleman and true Virginian who touched the hearts of many. 1 x 120' / Produced for Discovery Networks. Top: A family birthday celebration in the summer of 2006. Being in the Overtons home had afforded Werkhoven an intimate view of the family. She was born April 24, 1945 to Dabney Overton Sr. and Henrietta Mallory Overton and grew up in Warsaw, VA. She was graduated from St. Margaret's School in 1963 where she was awarded the Bishop's Prize all four years. . But Rotta was alarmed by his overall appearance. Exhausted from the previous night, she briefly dozed off, then awoke to discover that Andrew had slipped out of the room. Yet the image they conjuredof a woman grinning at the sight of a comatose four-year-oldwas devastating. At the time, Overton had four children and was pregnant with a fifth, and had no prior trouble with the law. The death of a childparticularly a sudden, unexplained death in which abuse is suspectedevokes strong emotions, even among seasoned investigators, doctors, forensics experts, and prosecutors. But was this churchgoing young woman a vicious child killer? Hannah, who was left with whiplash and a severely swollen jaw, spent the next several weeks immobilized by a neck brace, mostly confined to bed. She was native of this place and had been twice married. Like Hannah, Haller homeschooled her children, and the two mothers split teaching duties; the Haller children went to the Overton home for instruction for part of the day and vice versa. A committed Christian, he had gone on mission trips with his family since he was a child, including a fourteen-month stint in Papua New Guinea and several treks across Mexico. When Gilmore polled the jury afterward, all twelve members stated that they had found Hannah guilty of capital murder by omission for not acting quickly enough to save Andrew; none believed that she had poisoned him. CPR had also been performed for an extended period by Hannah and later by medical personnel, who had squeezed the boys nose and administered chest compressions for 35 minutes. Overton was convicted of capital murder after being accused of force-feeding Burd enough sodium to kill him. I will take that trip and take my friends spirit with me. Instead we were arrested.. Larry Overton was also charged with murder, but after his wife's conviction, he was offered a plea deal and was given probation. She had studied years earlier to be an EMT, she explained, and although she had never worked as a paramedic, she had felt confident in her training. movie nights, waking up to their beautiful faces. The Court of Criminal Appeals is currently reviewing her writ, which contends that the information about Andrews gastric contents are grounds for a new trial. 1 x 120' / Produced for Discovery Networks. Find the obituary of Hannah Mason "Tess" Overton (2019) from Gunnedah, NSW. He had a speech delay and spoke haltingly, sometimes with a stutter, but every week, when his Sunday school classmates went around in a circle to say their prayer requests, he made the same wish aloud: that he would be adopted. There were the charred remnants of his Spider-Man sheets in the fire pit. I will always remember Dabney's love of animals, nature and good music. The states case would be predicated in part on the findings of Ray Fernandez, the Nueces County medical examiner, who ruled Andrews death to be a homicide. She had a way with Michael that even my wife and I didnt completely understand, his father, Richard, told me. Both Larry and Hannah had done missionary work, and as a teenager, Hannah had spent holidays volunteering at an orphanage across the border, in Reynosa, where she had fed, bathed, and ministered to kids who had been living on the streets. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this difficult time., With love and warm memories of our Cousin Pete. Kids loved her. I would often see him riding with all the dogs in the back of the car. He would have been witness number one for the defense, Gilmore told me. He struck up a correspondence with Hannah, but she did not warm to him until their paths crossed again at a year-long missionary training school outside Tyler, when she was nineteen and he was a more clean-cut twenty. She and her family do so much good with nothing. Once a month, Larry loads the kids into his van and they make the trip together, although on those visits, no contact is allowed. The website is updated daily, frequently with exonerations that occurred in the past. His foster mother, Hannah Overton, was charged with capital murder, vilified from all quarters, and sent to prison for life. She believed that Andrews eating habits were not the stuff of pathology but those of a growing boy. A short discussion followed about the passage, in which Jesus heals a blind man, and then Larry closed his Bible and said, Okay, guys, lets pray. One by one, the kids spoke their prayers, each of which ended with the same wish. As I read the comments of so many I realize he touched everyone's lives just the same. Hess had given me his word that he would tell me if and when warrants were going to be issued, so that Hannah and Larry could turn themselves in. Instead, law enforcement officials had apprehended the Overtons by making a felony traffic stop, a practice usually reserved for suspects believed to be armed and dangerous. They speculated Andrew might have had pica, an eating disorder characterized by an obsessive appetite and that Andrew accidentally poisoned himself by consuming a fatal amount of sodium. There are really no words. Dear Overton Family and Friends of Dabney. I knew Dabney from years ago when we played softball together. But was this churchgoing young woman a vicious child killer? Financially, the accident had come at a precarious time; Larry had recently purchased his bosss landscape lighting business, and he needed to put in long hours just to make ends meet. Gilmore urged Hannah more than once to agree to have the jury consider a lesser charge, but she was uneasy with what she perceived as an underlying suggestion of wrongdoing. When Andrew complained of being hungry that afternoon, Hannah gave him more of the leftover soup. When Andrews condition worsened, she and Larry had debated whether to call 911 or go to the nearby urgent care clinic, a concern because Andrew lacked health insurance. On October 2, 2006, 29-year-old Hannah Overton and her husband, Larry brought Andrew Burd, their four-year-old foster son whom they were in the process of adopting, to a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas after the boy stopped breathing. Hannahs father was the Reverend Bennie Saenz, an evangelical preacher in Corpus Christi whose fall from grace profoundly altered the course of her childhood. According to her family tree, she married Larry D. Overton on August 9, 1997 in Texas . Overton spent seven years in prison after she was sentenced in 2007 to life without parole for the death of 4-year-old Andrew Burd, a boy she had planned to adopt with her husband. But there were many other things she had missed from behind bars. Any God, Christian or not, would have wanted a better mother for Andrew.. I spent many nights beating myself up over Could I have done this or could I have done that? Hannah told me, staring at her hands. This was usually on a road trip up or down the Valley. The prosecution portrayed her as a mother who had lost control and tried to punish the young boy by giving him seasoning mixed in water. Funeral service for Wendell Leon Overton, 81, of Cullman, will be 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, November 24, 2021 in the Cullman Funeral Home Chapel. Fellow church member Anita Miotti remembers their telling her and her husband, Rich, that they were struggling. But at a hearing on the defenses motion for a new trial, Eastwood stated under oath that Cortes had always been a passionate advocate for the prosecution; he had even remarked to her that he thought Hannah should fry. Cortes does not dispute that story. Ive seen doctors and nurses freeze up when a patient comes in convulsing or in extremis, he said. 2023 www.caller.com. I knew Dabney through my daughter. Submit an Obituary . He was good to everyone he met. My prayers and thoughts are with you all. Would you like to offer Jonah Lee Overtons loved ones a condolence message? Dabney was born on July 31, 1963 and grew up in Essex County, Va. Because the court has not been inclined to intercede so far, members of Calvary Chapel have begun a letter-writing campaign to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in hopes of securing a pardon or a commutation. So she had to find a way out. (Hess did not respond to interview requests for this article but has previously denied Hallers version of events.) He will be dearly missed. He defecated on the floor of his bedroom, then smeared feces on the bed, the dresser, and the walls. The sheets were filthy, and he was getting poop everywhere. A family birthday celebration in the summer of 2006. We have a child that was well until that afternoon, that had behavioral issues, that was having temper tantrums, that was then given something . His mothers and fathers parental rights were terminated soon after he turned three. After years of appeals and hearings the state'shighest criminal court overturned her conviction in 2014. Orra formidable legal mind whose work recently helped exonerate Michael Morton, a Williamson County man who was wrongly convicted of his wifes 1986 murderhad begun preparing a writ of habeas corpus, a last-ditch effort to persuade the courts to review Hannahs case. We thought that he would stop turning to food for comfort when he learned that he could trust us. To try and curtail Andrews compulsive eating, they put him in time-outs, though to little effect. Support The National Registry of Exonerations , The Contribution of Forensic and Expert Evidence to DNA Exoneration Cases, Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States, 2022, Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent, Witness Recantations: Preliminary Findings, May 2013, Exonerations in the United States: 1989 - 2012, Tell us about an Exoneration that we missed. We spoke last Tuesday about a biking trip we had plan in the spring to Cherokee,N.C. The court ruledher trial lawyers were ineffective, and sent her case back to be retried. Sifting through it one afternoon, Orr came across documents she had never seen before, which showed that Andrews stomach contents did not have an elevated amount of salt when he arrived at the urgent care clinic. Finally she relented, heating up what she had on hand: leftover vegetable-beef soup flavored with Zatarains Creole Seasoning. For the most accurate data, please search on the Detailed View page. information about the Registry, False or Misleading Forensic Evidence, Official Misconduct, Inadequate Legal Defense. Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka had charged Overton a second time for murder after her release. When Michael put his fingers in his mouth, she would call his name softlythere was no anger in her voiceand he would smile and slowly slide his fingers out, Richard said. In October 2006 a four-year-old from Corpus Christi named Andrew Burd died mysteriously of salt poisoning. On October 3, while Andrew was still hospitalized, the agency removed Isaac, Isabel, Ally, and Sebastian from their parents custody, placing them in two separate foster homes in Beeville, sixty miles away. Before they started a family, Hannah worked as a private-duty nurse for disabled children, and her longest assignmentwith a four-year-old named Michael Subialdeabecame as absorbing to her as her time in Reynosa. Obituaries Section. One paramedic recounted how he had seen two sores on Andrew that looked to me like cigarette burns because they were round. Another paramedic also believed the sores were cigarette burns, though he admitted he had only looked at them from a distance. Fernandez, the medical examiner, said he had observed burnlike scarring on Andrews arm that had likely been caused by contact with a hot surface. But neither Larry nor Hannah smoked. There was a dead child, he observed. What a loss for all of us; he will be missed. He recalled how Michael used to chew on his fingers, a chronic problem that left his skin bloody and raw. The Registry provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new evidence of innocence. The following evening, Andrew was dead. One of the recent fundraising efforts involves providing "chill towels" to incarcerated women this summer because most Texas prisons are without air conditioning. After he completed his probation, the charges were dismissed. There were days I had to remind her to eat, to brush her teeth, to get out of bed, Noreen told me. While he was relieved not to have to serve prison time, the discrepancy between his wifes punishment and his own left him stupefied. The Corpus Christi Caller-Timess online comments section filled with the vitriol of readers, some of whom called for Hannah to receive the death penalty. You can send your sympathy in the guestbook provided and share it with the family. He will be missed by his many friends. See our Cookie Policy. When they took him along on errands, they had to keep him from eating the old gum and cigarette butts he found on the ground. The media coverage of the case stirred widespread outrage. As a former private-duty nurse, Hannah felt equipped to handle the challenges of a foster child; she had spent several years caring for special-needs children, some of whom were profoundly disabled. She would later admit, according to one report, to using alcohol, methamphetamines, cocaine and crack cocaine, LSD, marijuana, cigarettes, and taking prescription Xanax. His father was seventeen and worked for a traveling carnival. Could it be that you held his nose, held his neck, and made him drink this horrible concoction? the prosecutor challenged her during a withering cross-examination. I wouldnt give up that time we had with him and that he had with us.. The kids now range in age from four to twelve, and when I visited them late one afternoon, not long after I had seen Hannah, they seemed unencumbered by the tragedy that had engulfed their family. A state judge has rejected claims by Hannah Overton that she was wrongly convicted of capital murder in 2007 because prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence, her lawyers were ineffective . There are two phones that the kids can speak into, and they eagerly pass the receivers back and forth, recounting the months events in stereo. (You can just tell by looking at her how evil she is, one wrote.) Cynthia Hujar-Orr, Gerry Goldstein and John Raley were apart of Overton's appellate team that helped overturn the . Impatient to return to the boys bedside, she gave a hurried, disjointed account of the day that omitted critical details, such as how she had found Andrew in the pantry unattended, and she made only fleeting mention of his unusual eating habits. I feel so fortunate to have spent time with him. In a 2012 interview from a Texas prison, Overton told ABC News that during one of the monthly visitations with her children, [Emma] took her first step, I was there. The Overtons daughters, four-year-old Isabel and three-year-old Ally, reported back to their parents that the new boy in their class needed a family.
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