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BRITTANY PILKINGTON |
Defendant will have to undergo forensic evaluation
Justices with the Third District Court of Appeals reportedly have upheld a local judge’s decision ordering Brittany Pilkington to undergo a forensic psychiatric evaluation.
Pilkington, 26, faces three counts of capital murder for allegedly killing her three sons over a 13-month period starting in July 2014. She faces the possibility of a death sentence.
Her trial has been delayed while her attorneys appealed a 2017 order from presiding Logan County Common Pleas Judge Mark S. O’Connor to undergo a forensic evaluation by a psychiatrist chosen by Logan County Prosecutor Eric Stewart’s office.
In 2017, Pilkington’s team of Kort Gotterdam and Marc S. Triplett successfully argued that Judge O’Connor should reconsider his November 2016 decision allowing prosecutors to use her recorded confession in trial.
Authorities say she admitted during the hours-long interview that she smothered the boys as they slept, starting with infant Niall in July 2014 followed by Gavin, 4, on April 6, 2015 and infant Noah on Aug. 18, 2015.
With affidavits from a neuropsychologist and a psychologist, Pilkington’s side argued Pilkington’s brain damage and mental illness were so extensive that she could not fully comprehend the Bellefontaine Police Department interrogation she endured Aug. 18, 2015.
Read complete story in Tuesday’s Examiner.
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