But Rotta was alarmed by his overall appearance. The defendant has portrayed herself as a nurturing Christian woman, Eastwood proclaimed. At the clinic, she continued giving him mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions until paramedics took over, but the four-year-old lay motionless. Though the kids were in poor health, Hannah was unreserved in her affection. Hannah shrugged off the teachers warnings, certain that Andrew would improve once he had the stability of a permanent home. (In his 32 years of practicing law, Gilmore told me, he has never run across the charge of capital murder by omission before or since.) There's also a pen pal program and Overton is often featured inFacebook videos in which she talks about ways to help women in prison. Estelle and John He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. It was Emma whom Hannah was pregnant with when Andrew died, and she is the child Hannah knows least. Rotta stopped short of describing the manner in which he believed Andrew had been made to eat a lethal amount of salta dose that, after analyzing Andrews blood, he determined would have consisted of 23 teaspoons of Zatarains Creole Seasoning or 6 teaspoons of salt. Advertisement. Left: Andrew and Isabel playing together. . We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. The Huntsville Times Homepage. He was born on April 2, 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas to the late Lewis Franklin and Dwight Katherine Overton. She was native of this place and had been twice married. Push him? Throughout the interrogation, which spanned more than two hours, Hannah insisted that she had never harmed Andrew. Taken together, the disparate details formed a disturbing picture. Looking for any information that might bolster the appeal, Orr requested access to the prosecutions case file. 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. Lane and her children moved to the East Texas town of Lindale, where a missionary organization, the Calvary Commission, allowed them to live in a modest apartment on its grounds free of charge. Hannah: i was and remain so sorry to hear about Dabney's unfortunate death. Hannah Overton, family celebrate her pregnancy months after she's declared innocent in boy's death, Hannah Overton, supporters chant 'Actually innocent' after capital murder dismissal, Nueces County DA to dismiss Overton case, declare woman innocent, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy 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. Sitting in the courtroom, she tried to explain how she had failed to recognize that Andrews condition was life-threatening. She was unflappable and unfailingly patient with children. I enjoyed each conversation we had about fishing, sailing and other things we both were interest in. Sadly she lost her . Fueling the publics antipathy was an affidavit written by a CPS child abuse investigator named Jesse Garcia, who claimed that Hannah had admitted to forcing Andrew to drink two cupfuls of chili with water and quoted her as saying that she then beat the shit out of him. Garcia never produced any documentation or witnesses to corroborate his claim, and internal police memos show that law enforcement officials doubted the veracity of his story. "We are so excited about all God has done in and through all of this. Lane earned her college degree and became an elementary school teacher, while Hannah played with, and later babysat, the children of missionaries who used the campus as a home base between trips abroad. He will be dearly missed. The congregation quickly dissolved. Being in the Overtons home had afforded Werkhoven an intimate view of the family. But was this churchgoing young woman a vicious child killer? He was such a kind person and always had a smile on his face. The Overtons have said they believed he instead had a rare medical conditioncalled hypernatremia that caused the fatal sodium levels. Take it one day at a time. We will always remember him fondly as a fellow Friend of Bandy Field. Dabney was a pleasant person to be around. Dabney and I were great friends while I lived in Richmond back in the late 80s - Browder,Russell days. Jonah Lee Overton Obituary It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Jonah Lee Overton (Charlotte, North Carolina), who passed away on January 21, 2023, at the age of 92, leaving to mourn family and friends. In the eyes of law enforcement, Hannah and Larry were not grieving parents but perpetrators of an appalling crime. Hannah Overton, a Corpus Christi homemaker and mother of five, was convicted of capital murder in 2007 for the death Andrew Burd, the four-year-old boy she and her husband were in the process. Obituary - Middle Island, L.I., December 5 - Mrs. Hannah M. Overton died yesterday morning after a short illness. Rather than let him remain in his wheelchair most of the day, as previous caretakers had done, Hannah kept him moving; she took him into his familys pool to stretch and used massage to loosen his contracted muscles. I am a better person for knowing him. Hannah and Larry had taken her in after her marriage ended in divorce, giving her their extra bedroom while she got back on her feet. Frantic, Hannah began administering CPR in the backseat. My friend Dabo - thanks for the fun at Washington and Lee but mostly for these last few years when your selflessness and wisdom were refreshing to see and experience. 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. Top: A family birthday celebration in the summer of 2006. We thought that he would stop turning to food for comfort when he learned that he could trust us.. Because he felt cold? He suspected that as the boys condition worsened, Hannah had fallen victim to what he calls stress blindness, a phenomenon he had witnessed many times during his 42 years of practicing medicine. According to her family tree, she married Larry D. Overton on August 9, 1997 in Texas . An Unforgettable Texas Tale of Envy, Embezzlement, and Fruitcake, How the Texas Rangers Became One of the Most Powerful Forces in the State. Myron F. Overton June 29, 1935 - June 6, 2013 Myron was born in Bakersfield, California to his loving parents Earl C. and Hazel J. Overton. I see Dabney very clearly at the dog park with Moose and Betsy, gliding along with that long stride of his and his big smile for everyone. After years of appeals and hearings the state'shighest criminal court overturned her conviction in 2014. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Victory Junction, 4500 Adam's Way, Randleman, NC 27317, https://victoryjunction.org or the Charlotte Humane Society, 1348 Parker Dr., Charlotte, NC 28208, https://humanesocietyofcharlotte.org, in Pete's name. Dabney was a great guy. He would have been witness number one for the defense, Gilmore told me. We dont know precisely how she got it down Andrew, but we know that he was very, very obedient, Eastwood told the jury, standing before the TV news cameras that Judge Longoria had allowed inside the courtroom. Now they can move forward, grieve the loss of Andrew, and heal, Orr said. Moritz, in fact, had been asked to testify as an expert witness for Hannahs defense at her trial. Afterward, she instinctively looked back to check on the children, not realizing that her face was covered in blood. Yet the jury had never heard from him. (More shocking details on abuse suffered by four-year-old before death, began one breathless report.) I wasnt thinking, obviously, or I would have just taken him to the hospital, Hannah told the detective. He was preceded in. 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. He was a nice guy. Nueces County jurors believed she failed to seek medical care for her foster son in a timely manner. That Andrew had sustained a head injury was based on the presence of a half-inch area of hemorrhaging under the scalp. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. 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. 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. Obituaries Section. 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. Would I really have stayed with a family that would abuse a child?, The most unsettling aspect of The State of Texas v. Hannah Ruth Overton, which got under way in August 2007, was how effectively a woman who had spent most of her life as a do-gooder could be recast as a monster. We have a child that was well until that afternoon, that had behavioral issues, that was having temper tantrums, that was then given something . It has been a long time since I saw Dabney last. I believe that the same God who made him is with him now in the most immediate sense. 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. Her second husband was Hampton Overton, who died about. In October 2006 a four-year-old from Corpus Christi named Andrew Burd died mysteriously of salt poisoning. He was a supportive friend to so many people, including 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 Overtons live in East Texas and told ABC News they have housed and supported prisoners after their release through their non-profit organization, Syndeo Ministries.