Accused Killer Mom 911 Tapes Heard
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Accused Killer Mom 911 Tapes Heard
WHEATON, Ill. (AP) - A woman accused of suffocating her three young
children
asked if she could kiss them goodbye before she was taken from their
home to a
hospital, a paramedic testified during a hearing.
Marilyn Lemak's request was denied, Naperville Fire Department paramedic
Phillip DeMik said Wednesday at an evidence hearing.
Defense lawyers want Lemak's statements, made to police less than an
hour after
she arrived at the hospital, barred on grounds the drugged, injured
woman was
in no state to give a voluntary or intelligent waiver of her rights to
remain
silent or consult an attorney.
``The question here is the reliability of the statements she gave,''
defense
lawyer Jack Donahue argued. ``These statements were the product of a
delusional
thought process.''
Prosecutors have charged Lemak with first-degree murder, saying she
admitted
killing her children. They have not decided whether to seek the death
penalty.
They played Lemak's 911 call and presented the paramedic's testimony
Wednesday
to bolster their claims Lemak was upset but mentally competent
immediately
after the killings.
``The evidence will show the defendant wanted to confess,'' prosecutor
Joseph
Birkett said.
In the 911 call, Lemak sobs intermittently as she tells the dispatcher:
``My
three kids are dead and I want to be dead too, and it didn't work.''
When the dispatcher asks her why it happened, Lemak responds: ``My
husband
didn't want us anymore.''
David and Marilyn Lemak were in the midst of a divorce, and he had
recently
moved out of the family's home in the southwest Chicago suburb of
Naperville.
DeMik described finding Lemak, 42, still on the telephone with a 911
dispatcher
when rescuers arrived on the scene March 5. She was sprawled on her
bedroom
floor in her underwear, dried blood on her forearm from apparently
self-inflicted slash wounds.
The body of 6-year-old Emily was found in Lemak's bed; the bodies of
7-year-old
Nicholas and 3-year-old Thomas were in their own bedrooms.
Police Detective Michael Cross said Lemak blurted, ``I did it,'' right
after he
introduced himself at the hospital. She went on to calmly describe how
she
drugged the children with a tranquilizer and suffocated them as they
slept,
then took drugs and slashed her own arm, Cross said.
The hearing is to continue Oct. 26.
AP-NY-10-07-99
-------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 10/7/99 online edition of The
Chicago
Sun-Times newspaper:
Lemak evidence revealed
October 7, 1999
BY DAN ROZEK SUBURBAN REPORTER
As Marilyn Lemak was led from her Naperville home and her three slain
children
in March, she had one request: "I'd like to kiss my children goodbye.' "
It was denied, paramedic Phillip DeMik testified during a pretrial
hearing
Wednesday.
Lemak sobbed in court as she listened to a tape recording of the 911
call she
made to report the deaths of her children.
"My three kids are dead, and I want to be dead, too, and it didn't
work," Lemak
said on the tape, her voice soft and quivering, occasionally breaking as
she
cried.
Asked by a dispatcher how the children died, Lemak said without
hesitating, "I
did it."
The 911 tape and other evidence disclosed during Wednesday's hearing
provides
new details of the slayings. But attorneys for Lemak are trying to
prevent some
of it from being used against her when she stands trial for murder.
They want DuPage County Judge George Bakalis to bar Lemak's account of
the
murders, arguing she was too traumatized to waive her rights and talk to
investigators.
Lemak had slashed her wrists before calling police. But she was coherent
and
conscious before being taken from the home for medical treatment,
prosecutors
and authorities say.
Naperville police detective Mike Cross said he introduced himself to
Lemak at
Edward Hospital less than an hour after the children were found dead and
that
she immediately confessed to their murders.
"She said, `I did it,' " Cross said, adding that Lemak
"matter-of-factly"
described how she drugged her children with her prescription
medications, then
suffocated them with her hands.
Lemak even demonstrated how the children--7-year-old Nicholas,
6-year-old Emily
and 3-year-old Thomas--had hallucinated from the medication before
falling
unconscious, Cross said. "She was holding her hand out like they were
grasping
at air," he testified.
She also told police the children drew on her and themselves with
markers as
the medication took effect.
Lemak, who showed little emotion during previous hearings, sat calmly as
Cross
testified but cried and wiped her eyes as prosecutors played the 911
tape.
Lemak, 42, referred to her pending divorce on the tape, telling the
dispatcher
she was upset because "my husband didn't want us any more." Her
estranged
husband, David Lemak, had moved out of the family home a few weeks
before the
murders. He was present for part of Wednesday's hearing but left without
commenting on the case.
Lemak's attorneys contend her mental state was so precarious after the
killings
and her own suicide attempt that any information she gave police is
suspect.
Prosecutors contend Lemak, a former surgical nurse, was upset but still
mentally competent when she allegedly confessed.
"The question here is the reliability of the statements she gave,"
defense
attorney John Donahue argued. "These statements were the product of a
delusional thought process."
---------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 10/6/99 online edition of The
Chicago
Sun-Times newspaper:
Lemak's admissions contested
October 6, 1999
BY DAN ROZEK SUBURBAN REPORTER
Marilyn Lemak was sprawled on the floor, half-dressed and crying, when
rescue
workers entered her Naperville home last March and found the bodies of
her
three slain children, paramedics testified Wednesday.
But Lemak was coherent, conscious and even asked to say a final goodbye
to her
murdered children before she was taken from the home for medical
treatment.
``She said, `I'd like to kiss my children goodbye,' '' Naperville Fire
Department paramedic Phillip DeMik said during a pretrial hearing today.
He
said rescuers denied her request.
Lemak's attorneys are asking a DuPage County judge to bar as evidence
Lemak's
account of her children's murders, arguing that she wasn't
psychologically able
to waive her rights and talk to police about the killings.
Prosecutors contend Lemak, a 42-year-old former surgical nurse, was
upset but
still mentally competent when she allegedly confessed to police that she
drugged and smothered her three young children.
``The evidence will show the defendant wanted to confess,'' DuPage
County
State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said, adding Lemak ``couldn't wait'' to
tell
police and others ``what she had done to her children.''
Lemak confessed to the first detective who interviewed her less than
hour after
the children's bodies were discovered on March 5, Birkett said.
``She immediately blurted out, `I did it,' '' Birkett said.
But Lemak's attorneys argued her mental state was so precarious after
the
killings--and her own unsuccessful suicide attempt--that any information
she
gave was suspect.
``The question here is the reliability of the statements she gave,''
defense
attorney John Donahue argued. ``These statements were the product of a
delusional thought process.''
Lemak's estranged husband, David Lemak, listened to the testimony with
several
other family members.
Outside the courtroom, he briefly greeted Marilyn Lemak's sister, who
was there
with her mother.
-------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 10/7/99 online edition of The
Naperville Sun newspaper:
Chilling 911 tape played at Lemak hearing
By Ed Bierschenk
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
WHEATON -- Marilyn Lemak wiped away tears with a trembling hand as a
911
recording of her gasping, desperate pleas resounded throughout a DuPage
County
courtroom Wednesday, seven months after she allegedly suffocated her
three
children and tried to kill herself at her Naperville home.
"My three kids are dead. I want to be dead, too," the disembodied
voice said
from a large tape player, set up in front of prosecutors who intend to
try her
for murder.
"My husband doesn't want us anymore," Lemak gasped as she lay on the
floor
next to the bed where her dead daughter's body rested on the morning of
March
5.
Wednesday, Lemak shook and stroked her cheek with an unsteady hand as
she
listened to the harrowing tape-recording.
The recording was played during a hearing on a motion to suppress
statements
Lemak made shortly before her arrest.
Lemak's attorney, John Donahue, contends his client had taken a
number of
drugs, including antidepressants and tranquilizers, the night of the
incident
and was not properly advised of her rights when she made a statement to
Naperville police at Edward Hospital.
"The statements were products of a delusional thought process,"
Donahue
said.
DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett and assistant
prosecutors,
however, produced a series of witnesses who indicated Lemak seemed
coherent as
she allegedly confessed to the murder of her children: Nicholas, 7,
Emily, 6,
and Thomas, 3.
Doctor testifies
Donahue's sole witness Wednesday was Lemak's physician, Robert Hubbard,
who
said he had been treating Lemak for depression for several months before
the
incident on March 5. He had prescribed both the tranquilizer Ativan and
the
antidepressant Zoloft as part of his treatment of Lemak, who was in the
midst
of a divorce from her husband, David.
Hubbard said that when he saw Lemak on March 2, she indicated she was
feeling much better, and that she accepted what was going on with her
husband.
Three days later, when he visited her at Edward Hospital after the
deaths of
her children, Lemak explained with words and gestures how she had given
her
children Ativan before pinching their noses and holding her hand over
their
mouths to suffocate them, Hubbard said.
Lemak said she had taken about 30 aspirins and Ativan and Zoloft the
previous night, according to Hubbard.
Lemak told Hubbard "she had seen her husband with his girlfriend the
prior
day, and she and her children were no longer the most-important things
in his
life, and she was going to relieve him of that responsibility."
Hubbard said, when he visited her in the hospital, Lemak questioned
him
about a bruise he had and commented on the warm temperature in her
hospital
room. Such statements did not seem appropriate for someone whose three
children
had just died, said Hubbard, but he added that she did not seem
delusional.
Naperville detective Michael Cross said Lemak seemed "calm and matter
of
fact" when he interviewed her shortly after an ambulance had transported
her to
Edward Hospital.
According to Cross, Lemak declared, "I did it," shortly after he
entered her
hospital room.
Cross, who testified he read Lemak her rights, also said she used
gestures
to show how she had held her hand over her children's mouths and pinched
their
noses.
He said Lemak said she wanted to be dead and felt bad that she
wasn't.
Caroline Nelson, a nurse at Edward Hospital, said Lemak said she
tried to
hurt herself "because her husband didn't want to make her and her
children his
first priority."
Lemak's husband attended part of the hearing but left the courtroom
during a
recess.
The hearing on the motion to suppress is expected to continue on Oct.
26,
when Donahue will call additional witnesses. Donahue plans to argue that
Lemak
was insane or suffering from an organic brain disorder at the time of
the
children's deaths.
Recalling the scene
Naperville firefighter-paramedic Philip DeMik said Lemak was lying on
the floor
of her second-floor bedroom, talking on a cellular phone, when he
arrived at
her home shortly before noon on March 5.
DeMik testified that, after he entered the house, Lemak said, "My
children
are dead."
Lemak allegedly pointed to the bed above her, and, when DeMik pulled
back
the covers, he found a young girl who was dead. The other children's
bodies
were found in other parts of the house, said DeMik, who said that a
wound on
Lemak's right wrist was crusted over with blood.
Lemak was alert, knew her name, and the names and ages of her
children,
DeMik said.
He said she gave specific details of what had occurred and of the
medication
she had given to her children. The young girl had different colored
markings on
her body, according to DeMik.
Donahue said in his motion to suppress that Lemak and her children
had been
painted with "Magic Markers," and that her wedding dress and a photo of
her
husband had been pierced with an Exacto knife.
DeMik said Lemak eventually was carried down to the ambulance in a
portable
chair by paramedics before being transported to the hospital.
Before leaving, she said, "I'd like to kiss my children goodbye,"
DeMik
said.
Paramedics did not allow her to do that, he said.
---------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 10/7/99 online edition of The
Chicago
Tribune newspaper:
Court hears Lemak 911 tape: 'I did it'
By Janan Hanna
Tribune Staff Writer
October 07, 1999
Marilyn Lemak was emotional but lucid, alert and completely aware of her
surroundings when paramedics arrived at her Naperville home on the
morning
after she allegedly killed her three children, according to court
testimony
Wednesday.
Before she was taken to Edward Hospital, one paramedic testified, Lemak
made a
request: "I'd like to kiss my children goodbye."
The paramedics found Lemak sitting half-naked on her bedroom floor,
clutching a
cellular phone, saying "My children are dead," said paramedic Phillip
DeMik, a
Naperville firefighter who was one of the first officials to enter the
home.
Lemak then pointed to her bed, where the body of her daughter, Emily, 6,
lay
covered with a sheet. She told paramedics and police that the bodies of
her two
other children, Thomas, 3, and Nicholas, 7, were in their beds, DeMik
testified.
DeMik's testimony about the March 4 killings was part of a pretrial
hearing in
Lemak's murder case. The hearing included the playing of a tape of
Lemak's
emergency 911 phone call the next morning, notifying authorities that
her
children were dead.
The hearing focused on the defense's request to bar from evidence a
confession
Lemak allegedly gave to Naperville police. DuPage County Circuit Judge
George
Bakalis made no ruling on the defense request and continued the hearing
until
Oct. 26.
As he began treating her for a self-inflicted wrist wound, DeMik
testified,
Lemak was sobbing but was "alert and oriented." She told paramedics that
she
was a nurse and asked questions about her treatment, according to
testimony.
Later, as he helped her down the stairs of the home to a waiting
ambulance,
Lemak asked to kiss her children, DeMik testified.
The request was not granted, he said.
For the first time, Lemak's frantic call to 911 was heard as prosecutors
entered a tape recording of the conversation into evidence.
"My three kids are dead and I want to be dead too, but it didn't work,"
Lemak
told the emergency operator. "I did it.
". . . My husband didn't want us anymore," Lemak is heard saying through
sobs.
A divorce was pending between Lemak and her estranged husband, David, at
the
time of the killings.
On the tape, Lemak said: "I didn't want to wake up this morning, but I
did and
the kids are dead."
The defense's only witness on Wednesday, family practitioner Dr. Robert
Hubbard, testified later that Lemak told him at Edward Hospital that
"she had
seen her husband with his girlfriend the prior day and realized she and
her
children were no longer the most important thing in his life and she was
going
to free him of that responsibility."
Lemak, who sat expressionless during most of the hearing, began to weep
when
the 911 tape was played. Her mother and two sisters, as well as her
mother-in-law and father-in-law, sat sobbing in the crowd.
Lemak's defense lawyers plan an insanity defense. They contend that
Lemak was
mentally unstable and in no condition to waive her rights before
speaking to
police at the hospital.
Prosecutors argued that Lemak was lucid and perfectly competent to speak
to
police. She volunteered information about her medical history and her
knowledge
of medical procedures to the paramedics, said DuPage County State's
Atty.
Joseph Birkett, who is leading the prosecution.
"She couldn't wait to tell the police what she did to herself and her
children," Birkett said in his opening statement. "The defendant clearly
understood what was going on."
At the four-hour hearing, prosecutors presented the testimony of two
paramedics, an emergency room nurse who treated Lemak at the hospital
and
Naperville Detective Michael Cross, to whom Lemak is alleged to have
confessed.
After arriving at Edward Hospital, Lemak told personnel that she had
taken
between 20 and 30 aspirin as well as the antidepressant Zoloft and three
tablets of the sedative Ativan. Her normal dose of Ativan, which was
prescribed
along with the Zoloft by her doctor, was two tablets, according to
testimony.
Cross testified that when he entered Lemak's room, she said, "I did it."
The
detective testified that he cut her off and advised her of her
constitutional
rights. She responded that she understood those rights, Cross said.
She proceeded to give Cross a narrative of the killings, the detective
testified, telling him that she drugged and suffocated the children.
Lemak made gestures with her hands, showing Cross how the children, who
were
hallucinating from the drugs, were grabbing for things that were not
there, he
testified.
"She said the children were writing on her with markers while they were
hallucinating," Cross said.
During cross-examination by defense lawyer John Donahue, Cross said he
made no
video or audio recording of the confession and did not have her write a
statement because her hands were shaking.
Cross testified that he destroyed the notes taken by another officer
during the
interview because "that's my own personal practice."
Police had planned to videotape Lemak's statements, Cross testified, but
department equipment was not working.
"When is the last time the Naperville Police Department used a videotape
to
record a confession?" Donahue asked Cross.
"I couldn't say specifically," said Cross, a 29-year veteran of the
department.
David Lemak, a physician, attended the morning portion of the hearing
but was
not present in the courtroom when the 911 tape was played.
Hubbard, Marilyn Lemak's doctor, testified that he had been treating
Lemak for
depression for 10 months before the killings.
Hubbard testified that Lemak's depression was triggered by her pending
divorce.
But two days before the killings, Lemak told Hubbard that she was
feeling
better and had "accepted what was going on with her husband," the doctor
testified.
When he visited Lemak in the hospital after the killings, Hubbard
testified,
her behavior was inappropriate for a woman who had lost her three
children. She
talked about how warm she was, asked Hubbard about a bruise on his face
and
said she was thirsty, the doctor testified.
Lemak eventually told him what had happened to the children, Hubbard
testified
during cross-examination.