Man blames 'nightmares' in stabbing attack on wife
Lady Libra
By DAVID DOEGE
ddo...@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Feb. 19, 2003
Erin M. Cottrell insists he still can't remember nearly killing his wife,
but he told a jury Wednesday that the bizarre attack occurred when he was
trapped in a five-hour series of "horrible" nightmares.
"I've had nightmares before," Cottrell told jurors, "but not the same theme
over and over again."
Convinced while sound asleep that his then-wife, Deborah Ann, was leaving
him for another man, he choked, smothered and repeatedly stabbed her, but he
wasn't aware of what he was doing until a police officer kicked in the
couple's apartment door and ended his nightmares, Cottrell said.
"I asked him, 'What's going on?' " Cottrell testified. "I asked him this
repeatedly; I wanted to know what was going on."
It wasn't until hours later, the nuclear engineer said, after he was
arrested and his wife was carted to a hospital, that a police detective
jogged his memory.
"I started remembering some of the dreams I had," Cottrell told the jury. "I
started remembering a lot of stuff."
The one thing he still can't remember, he said, was attacking his wife of
nine months.
"I still can't imagine how or why that happened," Cottrell said, choking up.
Cottrell's account Wednesday came during 41/2 hours on the witness stand.
Testifying in the third day of his trial, Cottrell occasionally brought
tears to his former wife's face as she sat in the courtroom with her family.
The unusual case and his novel sleep disorder defense have consistently
drawn a large gallery in the courthouse's largest courtroom.
Cottrell, 30, is standing trial on charges of attempted first-degree
intentional homicide while armed, aggravated battery and false imprisonment
for the May 14 attack that left his then-wife with a slashed neck, a
collapsed lung and a variety of stab wounds to her hands and arms.
The attack, which Cottrell and defense attorney Patrick Earle do not
dispute, occurred in the couple's apartment in the 6900 block of W. Orchard
St. in West Allis. The key to their defense is their contention that
Cottrell did not consciously intend to harm his then-wife because he was in
a dream state exacerbated by the ingestion of cold medicine and wine the
night before.
Cottrell, a former Navy lieutenant, said that the last thing he remembers
about the night before the attack was taking an over-the-counter medication
he had been using for two weeks while battling bronchitis.
"The next thing I remember is waking up and hearing someone knocking at the
door" at 10:30 a.m. the next day, he said. "It was kicked open by an
officer.
"It was very shocking."
Assistant District Attorney David Maas questioned Cottrell about how he was
able to fill a glass with water for the woman, pretend to call 911 for help
and bring towels to her, all while he was dreaming.
"Have you ever had a dream like this before?" Maas asked.
"Not this severe," Cottrell replied. "Not this violent.
"Not this ongoing. This was new for me."
After Cottrell was arrested and underwent questioning at the West Allis
police station, he said, he began to recall some of what occurred.
"It was horrible," he said. "It's absolutely horrible what the scene was."
In the months that followed, Cottrell said, psychologists and a psychiatrist
helped him recall only a portion of what he did and dreamed.
"I only recall a half-hour of events," he said. "I'm not sure if I'll ever
remember more."
Cottrell said he had long been a sleepwalker, but his former wife said she
never saw him doing it.
Maas also asked Cottrell why, during repeated medical exams during his naval
career, he denied sleepwalking.
"The purpose was to indicate a problem, and I didn't think it was a
problem," Cottrell replied.
Testimony in the trial is expected to end Thursday.
--
~there arriving she is sure of bliss, and forever dwells in paradise...~
Lady Libra
He cut her throat after massage, former wife says
By DAVID DOEGE
ddo...@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Feb. 18, 2003
Deborah Ann Cottrell said May 14 started out like any other morning. As she
awoke to prepare for her day, her husband began massaging her shoulders.
But suddenly, without warning, she told a Milwaukee County jury Tuesday,
Erin Cottrell's touch changed from loving to violent as he drew a knife
across her throat.
"It was kind of like a stinging paper cut is the best way I can describe it,
but it was all across my neck."
Within seconds, she said, she was fighting for her life as her husband tried
stabbing her, smothering her with a pillow and wringing her neck. She
pushed, kicked and bit, she said, and screamed, but no one came. She pleaded
for explanation from Cottrell, she said, but he mostly grunted in response.
Five hours later, as she lay bleeding in the hallway, a police officer broke
in, arrested her husband and called an ambulance.
"You have no idea what it feels like to have blood flowing down your throat
like a waterfall," she said.
"I relive it all the time."
Deborah Cottrell's testimony came on the second day of her former husband's
trial on charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide while armed,
aggravated battery and false imprisonment in connection with the early
morning attack in the couple's apartment in the 6900 block of W. Orchard St.
Erin Cottrell, 30, a nuclear engineer and former Navy lieutenant, has raised
a novel sleep disorder defense. His attorney, Patrick Earle, has said
Cottrell attacked his wife while he was dreaming and under the influence of
cold medicine and wine, that he was acting as automaton who could not form
the requisite criminal intent to be guilty of the crimes charged.
A psychologist who examined Cottrell reported that he attacked his wife
after dreaming that she was leaving him for another man.
Deborah Cottrell, 27, sustained stab wounds to the neck, chest and hands
that required an estimated 100 stitches. She spent eight days in the
hospital, she said.
During her two hours of testimony Tuesday, she described the evening before
the bizarre attack. At the time, her husband was working for G.E. Medical
Systems in West Milwaukee and she was teaching at Prairie School in Racine.
The Cottrells, who divorced a few months after the attack, had been married
for nine months, though they had known each other about nine years.
She said the couple spent a romantic evening together; he cooked dinner and
they shared two bottles of wine.
Twice during the night, she said, her husband woke her, once to put lotion
on her dry hands and a second time to say she was dreaming.
"Could you see his face?" Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney David
Maas asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Was he awake?" Maas asked.
"Yes," she answered.
"In all the time you've known him . . . has he ever suffered from
sleepwalking?" Maas asked.
"No," she said.
During the attack, she said, her husband said little.
"Most of the time he was grunting," Deborah Cottrell recalled. "It was
constant.
"It was all I heard, and I kept trying to talk with him. I asked him, 'Why
are you doing this?'
"He said, 'Why did you betray me?' I said, 'I never betrayed you.' "
Deborah Cottrell's father and in-laws later testified that the couple never
indicated they were anything other than happily married.
Cottrell took the witness stand late Tuesday afternoon and is expected to
resume his testimony today.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/feb03/119401.asp
Lady Libra
He says suspect was calm, quiet as wife lay bleeding
By DAVID DOEGE
ddo...@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Feb. 17, 2003
As his wife lay on the floor bleeding from several stab wounds, and with
blood covering his own face and hands, a West Allis man calmly tried to
convince a police officer nothing was amiss, the officer testified Monday.
Erin M. Cottrell, a nuclear engineer using a novel sleep disorder defense in
his attempted murder trial, also ignored the officer's commands when he
entered the couple's apartment, the officer told jurors.
"He was leaning over a female who was laying on her side or on her stomach,"
West Allis police officer Anthony Ball testified. "Either he was pulling her
hair or holding her head down.
"I told him to get on the ground. . . . He said, 'We're OK. We're OK. We
don't need your help.'
"He was quiet. He didn't seem shaken. He actually kept his hands on her as
he was speaking to me."
When Cottrell did step away, Ball said, he threw Cottrell down and
handcuffed him.
Ball's testimony came in the first day of Cottrell's trial on charges of
attempted first-degree intentional homicide while armed, aggravated battery
and false imprisonment.
The case stems from his May 14 attack on his wife in their apartment in the
6900 block of W. Orchard St. Ball went there to check on Deborah Cottrell
after her colleagues at a Racine school became concerned because she didn't
show up to teach that day.
Deborah Cottrell told police that her husband had attacked her without
warning moments after they awakened, that their nine-month marriage was
solid and they had been thinking about starting a family. They have since
divorced.
On Friday, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Wagner ruled that Erin
Cottrell and his attorney, Patrick Earle, can have a psychiatrist provide
unusual testimony that will be the cornerstone of their defense: that
Cottrell attacked his wife while dreaming. Psychiatrist George B. Palermo
also has concluded that the dream state was exacerbated by the effects of
over-the-counter cold medicine and wine.
In his opening statement Monday, Earle told jurors "automatism" left
Cottrell "without the ability to reason, without the ability to control."
Earle said prosecutors must prove that the former U.S. Navy lieutenant, who
worked for GE Medical Systems, had "specific intent" to commit each crime
charged.
"No one will tell you about any precipitating events (in the Cottrell
marriage)," Earle said. "You're going to learn that what happened that
morning was absolutely bizarre."
His client will testify, Earle promised.
Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney David Maas told jurors that
some of the testimony will stand out.
"Think about things that don't seem to be right, things that seem to be out
of place," Maas said.
Maas noted that while "there was blood everywhere" in the apartment, there
was none on any of the four disconnected telephone jacks. Maas also said
that Cottrell was unhappy with his job and had talked about moving, and that
sometime after the attack, Deborah Cottrell found sleeping tablets in the
apartment, though neither she nor her husband took them.
Finally, Maas noted that the attack occurred over five hours.
"It's a miracle she survived," he said. "This all boils down to whether the
defendant intended to kill his wife."
Urchin
spirit of ATC. Keep it up!
In article <Eaw5a.7512$163.3...@twister.tampabay.rr.com>, "Lady Libra"
Michael Snyder
>
> Lady Libra, you post some great articles well in keeping with the
> spirit of ATC. Keep it up!
Yeah, lets see whether this guy garners anything like
the sympathy of an Andrea Yates, a Betty Lou Beets, or
a Karla Faye Tucker.
jan
<msn...@redhat.com> wrote:
>Urchin wrote:
>>
>> Lady Libra, you post some great articles well in keeping with the
>> spirit of ATC. Keep it up!
>
>Yeah, lets see whether this guy garners anything like
>the sympathy of an Andrea Yates, a Betty Lou Beets, or
>a Karla Faye Tucker.
How sympathetic were *you* for Clara Harris?
--
jan
"Now, we talked to Joan Hanover. She and her
husband, George, were visiting with us. They
are near retirement - retiring - in the process
of retiring, meaning they're very smart, active,
capable people who are retirement age and
are retiring."
-- Pres. GW Bush, Alexandria, Va., Feb. 12, 2003
yaffaDina
>
> Urchin wrote:
> >
> > Lady Libra, you post some great articles well in keeping with the
> > spirit of ATC. Keep it up!
>
> Yeah, lets see whether this guy garners anything like
> the sympathy of an Andrea Yates, a Betty Lou Beets, or
> a Karla Faye Tucker.
But first let's see if you can comment on what is not on what you think
should be.
yD
jan
wrote:
>On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 13:33:45 -0500, yaffaDina <yaffa...@netscape.net>
>wrote:
>
>>But first let's see if you can comment on what is not on what you think
>>should be.
>
>Is it just me, or does that sentence lack syntax?
>Maybe there's a typo in there somewhere?
I think that the placement of a comma between "is" and "not" would put
it all into place.
jan
wrote:
>On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 22:09:28 GMT, jan <spindockter_@_yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 14:03:33 -0800, Bart Bailey <bar...@nethere.net>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, 24 Feb 2003 13:33:45 -0500, yaffaDina <yaffa...@netscape.net>
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>>But first let's see if you can comment on what is not on what you think
>>>>should be.
>>>
>>>Is it just me, or does that sentence lack syntax?
>>>Maybe there's a typo in there somewhere?
>>
>>I think that the placement of a comma between "is" and "not" would put
>>it all into place.
>
>That does it!
>You must be a wordsmith, or a psychic <g>
Miss Cleo calls *me* for advice.
<g>