As the hours of video recorded questioning played out in the Logan County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday and Wednesday, it became apparent why Brittany Pilkington’s defense team wants the evidence thrown out.
A video recording screen shot shows Bellefontaine Police Detective Dwight Salyer, left, interviewing Brittany Pilkington on Aug. 18, 2015, in the police station. (EXAMINER PHOTO | JOEL E. MAST)
Without it, the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office murder case would wither as there is no physical evidence of a crime.
The 24-year-old defendant has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder with each carrying the possibility of a death sentence.
It is a case based solely on her recorded confession.
She is accused of smothering her sons, starting with Niall, three months old, on July 22, 2014, continuing with Gavin, 4, on April 6, 2015, and ending with Noah, three months old, on Aug. 18, 2015.
Bellefontaine Police Detective Dwight Salyer testified she agreed to interviews with him regarding Noah’s death and he drove her from Mary Rutan Hospital to the police department.
She rode without handcuffs in the front seat of the unmarked sedan, he said, and if the doors on the sedan locked, it was because the car was programmed to do so.
Once at the station, the detective placed her in an interview room, read her a Miranda rights waiver, had her sign it and then began several hours of questions with extended breaks and offers of water, food and restroom breaks.
The day continued at the Logan County Sheriff’s Office where she once again was given her Miranda rights by the county’s polygraph specialist Rob Beightler.
The polygraph questioning was not included in the evidence as it is inadmissible in court.
Finally, the tape ends with Police Chief Brandon Standley and Detective Scott Sebring stepping in to firm up the suspect’s confession.
Her attorneys contend her statements were made involuntarily and without providing her legal representation. They claim she did not realize when she twice signed the waivers against self-incrimination what she was doing despite years of interaction with police.
They are asking Judge Mark S. O’Connor to throw out her confessions.
Det. Salyer handled the bulk of the questioning with some help from Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation Agent Paul Thomas.
The suspect went from denying any involvement to admitting she may have caused the boys’ deaths but didn’t mean to.
She appeared particularly hung up on details surrounding Niall’s death, so Chief Standley and Det. Sebring stepped in with a direct line of questions.
“We’ve been listening to you outside and you’re still not being honest,” Det. Sebring said. “You need to get this off your chest.”
They proceeded to elicit her responses on how and why she killed her sons.
As she confessed, she said between sobs that she should’ve killed herself instead.
“I wish I would’ve killed myself,” she said at one point, later adding, “I should’ve hurt myself instead.”
As the hearing concluded Wednesday, Judge O’Connor instructed Chief Assistant Prosecutor Eric Stewart to have the prosecution’s written conclusion filed by Monday and gave the Pilkington defense team until the following Friday, Oct. 28, to respond.
His decision on the suppression motion would follow within several weeks.