Despite Eastwoods zeal, there were still basic questions that the prosecution could not explain. If she had taken Andrew to the hospital earlier, what would she have taken him in for? But was this churchgoing young woman a vicious child killer? I knew Dabney years ago while living in Richmond. His foster mother, Hannah Overton, was charged with capital murder, vilified from all quarters, and sent to prison for life. With guns drawn, police officers had surrounded Hannah and Larrys car as they returned from an errand, forcing them to the ground and handcuffing them. The defense presented the jury with a medical mystery. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. He was good to everyone he met. Hannah went into labor with her first child, Isaac, at the Subialdeas house, and though she had planned to come back to work after her sons birth, she found the separation from him too wrenching. He was such a kind person, always with a smile on his face and a warm hug. She believed that Andrews eating habits were not the stuff of pathology but those of a growing boy. He delivered sermons to a small but devoted following that met every Sunday, and during services he also played guitar. Hannah Overton, exonerated in boy's death, welcomes new baby to family According to Haller, he told her, Look, shes pregnant and she has all these kids, but it was just too much for her. My sons in high school now. He was a loyal Red Sox Nation member and I a Yankees Universe devotee. A church elder, who was himself an adoptive parent, invited the Overtons to dinner one night and encouraged them to consider bringing Andrew into their home. Moritz, in fact, had been asked to testify as an expert witness for Hannahs defense at her trial. Overton has accused Eastwood of acting unethically in her case, something Eastwood has denied repeatedly. Larry and Hannah caught him trying to eat cat food, crayons, toothpaste, glow sticks, tufts of carpetinganything he could get his hands on. memorial page for Hannah Ester Hall Overton (1660-1732), Find a Grave Memorial ID 160804572; Burial Details Unknown; . When a four-year-old from Texas died mysteriously of salt poisoning, his foster mother, Hannah Overton, was charged with capital murder and sent to prison for life. Although the adoption agency that had worked with CPS to find Andrew a home had described him as developmentally on target except for his speech delay, Larry and Hannah observed otherwise. As Andrews condition deteriorated, CPS barred the Overtons from visiting their son. I have shared a memorial tribute I wrote about Dabney with all who've asked. And when he became less responsive, she had pulled out her old EMT books to assess what was wrong. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. New medical evidence shows that Hannah Overton did not force her 4-year-old foster son Andrew Burd to ingest large amounts of salt, causing his death in 2006 and her to serve a life sentence. Sifting through it one afternoon, Orr came across documents she had never seen before, which showed that Andrews stomach contents did not have an elevated amount of salt when he arrived at the urgent care clinic. They asked us, Can you pray that we have discernment and wisdom in helping him through this?. I feel at such a loss, as do all of us who were fortunate enough to have been graced with Dabney's presence. Can Andrew be our brother? the girls pleaded. This small benefit will allow her and her sweet family to continue to share their goodness with all of us with some degree of comfort. Nueces County jurors found she'dfailed to seek timely medical care for the boy. He was a gentle and kind person always willing to help others. Sending hope that your healing is swift. That perception would throw her other children into the investigation as well. Dabney will be missed by a wide range of supportive friends and family. The Overtons moved forward with the adoption process, and in the spring of 2006, they received word that Andrew would be coming to live with them for a six-month trial period before the adoption was finalized. On October 2, 2006, 29-year-old Hannah Overton and her husband, Larry brought Andrew Burd, their four-year-old foster son whom they were in the process of adopting, to a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas after the boy stopped breathing. Andrew continued eating until he threw up. Our condolences to his family and friends. Would you like to offer Jonah Lee Overtons loved ones a condolence message? 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. It was Emma whom Hannah was pregnant with when Andrew died, and she is the child Hannah knows least. He was a very quiet and caring man. But Hannah, who was bewildered by Andrews condition, had no ready answers. The states case would be predicated in part on the findings of Ray Fernandez, the Nueces County medical examiner, who ruled Andrews death to be a homicide. There was a time when I questioned how God could allow this to happen, she said. Our paths crossed later in life and we renewed our friendship. A unique and lasting tribute for a loved one. She was even slighter in person than I had expected, and as she related the events of the past five years in her soft voice, she looked hopelessly out of place in her white prison jumpsuit. In loving memory of Jonah Lee Overton, The boy was diagnosed with a toxic salt overdose and died the following day. Until Proven Innocent: the Hannah Overton Story The very dilute gastric sodium contents suggest . Although I believe that Mrs. Overton was remiss in seeking timely medical care for Andrew Byrd, I do not believe that she intended or knew that this would result in his death. The wording of the jury charge, she added, had been ambiguous and confusing. Ultimately, Warfield wrote, I do not feel that justice has been served., Two days after Hannah was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a pediatrician named Edgar Cortes took the unusual step of contacting Gilmore. 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. His foster mother, Hannah Overton, was charged with capital murder, vilified from all quarters, and sent to prison for life. — -- Murder charges against Hannah Overton, a south Texas mother of five who had been convicted in the 2007 salt poisoning trial in the death of her foster son, have been dismissed by the . There are really no words. Andrew liked to eat every day, all day, any time, she said. She had a way with Michael that even my wife and I didnt completely understand, his father, Richard, told me. Can College Sports Get More Absurd Than SMU Joining the Pac-12? Find the obituary of Hannah Mason "Tess" Overton (2019) from Gunnedah, NSW. Overton spent seven years in prison before the Texas Court of Appeals overturned her capital murder charges on September 17, 2014. On several occasions his fits had grown so extreme that she had resorted to asking a male parishioner to physically remove him from the classroom until he could regain self-control. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Shana Druckerman contributed to this report, 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Hoping to show him that his behavior was self-destructive, Larry told Andrew one morning that he could have as much as he wanted for breakfast. In 2005 the Overtons began to pursue the idea seriously. information about the Registry, False or Misleading Forensic Evidence, Official Misconduct, Inadequate Legal Defense. On their honeymoon, they stopped at the orphanage in Reynosa, where Hannah wanted Larry to meet some of the children she had told him so much about. Those charges were not considered double jeopardy because Overtons conviction was overturned by the higher court on the basis of ineffective counsel, which granted her a new trial. A comment someone made was that it appeared that this child had been in a fight with a porcupine, the physician stated. What little is known about Andrew Burds early life is contained in a slim Child Protective Services case file that chronicles the boys descent into the child welfare system. Moritz is the clinical director of pediatric nephrology at the Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he specializes in childrens kidney diseases. Cynthia Hujar-Orr, Gerry Goldstein and John Raley were apart of Overtons appellate team that helped overturn the conviction. H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping, West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country. He. In the eyes of law enforcement, Hannah and Larry were not grieving parents but perpetrators of an appalling crime. The prosecution portrayed her as a mother who had lost control and tried to punish the young boy by giving him seasoning mixed in water. They chattered about an upcoming birthday party and discussed the merits of their favorite colors, finishing each others sentences between slurps of soup. Overton, 38, was convicted in 2007 after being accused of force-feeding young Andrew Burd enough salt to kill him, even though she had no previous problems with the law and was raising four children and was pregnant with a fifth. Larry was charged with injury to a child for failing to get Andrew timely medical attention. May God bless you and. Sitting in the courtroom, she tried to explain how she had failed to recognize that Andrews condition was life-threatening. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to his family and many friends. The physician only said that the scratch marks he had noticed on the boys neck had been caused, he believed, by another person. I enjoyed each conversation we had about fishing, sailing and other things we both were interest in. Four subsequent investigations were triggered by reports of abuse or neglect, including one allegation that both his mother and maternal grandmother were incapable of properly caring for him because they used methamphetamines. Receive obituaries from the city or cities of your choice. Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituaries Search; Sponsored by Ancestry. But law enforcement and emergency medical personnel who treated Andrew thought otherwise. Every Saturday for the past several years, Larry has ridden his motorcycle from Corpus Christi to the Murray Unit, the maximum-security womens prison west of Waco where Hannah is incarcerated: a squat, concrete building walled off from the world with cyclone fencing and coils of razor wire. 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. Anne Turner Overton Haile died peacefully at home in Portland, Oregon on December 7, 2021. The original prosecutor in the Overton case, Sandra Eastwood, was terminated for reasons unrelated to this case years after the trial concluded. It did not matter that Haller, who had seen Andrew in the days leading up to his hospitalization and who was frequently in the Overton home, had never observed any suspicious bruises or indications of abuse. Hannah Overton, a south Texas mother of five whose wrongful conviction for the 2006 death of her foster son was overturned last year, is expected to receive over $500,000 in compensation from the state for the years she spent in jail. Hannah and Andrew In October 2006 a four-year-old from Corpus Christi named Andrew Burd died mysteriously of salt poisoning. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. a few minutes before we actually took him in, she testified. We truly thought his obsession with food was a behavioral issue, not a medical one, Larry said. Ill put it this way. His foster mother had taken him to a pediatrician for an adoption screening shortly before he had come to live with them, and the checkup had raised no red flags. What a great sense of comfort to know that I could be greated on the other side by such a kind person. To find Hannah guilty, jurors had to believe either of two scenarios: that Hannah Overton force-fed Andrew salt knowing it would kill him or that she neglected to get medical help fast enough knowing that it would kill him. Just as she had hoped, they would have six children. Pleading out to that was much better than having my children grow up without a mother or a father. In exchange for his plea, Larry was given five years probation and a $5,000 fine. He was kind, he was gentle, he had a great smile. Larry had also tried to rouse him by giving him a warm bath. Reaching for his shoes, he announced, I can do all things. Larry remembered, We felt like we were really making headway with him.. I am so sorry to learn of Dabney's passing. Before they started a family, Hannah worked as a private-duty nurse for disabled children, and her longest assignmentwith a four-year-old named Michael Subialdeabecame as absorbing to her as her time in Reynosa. He will be missed by his many friends. Now they can move forward, grieve the loss of Andrew, and heal, Orr said. If he had Downs, that was the blessing that God had chosen to give us, Larry said. Fire Ants Have Unleashed Chaos in Texas for Decades. God bless you Dabney, we'll miss you. The Registry also maintains a more limited database of known exonerations prior to 1989. The paperwork Orr now forwarded to him, which showed that Andrews stomach contained a great deal of water, only confirmed the clinical directors initial conclusion. 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. Alton Lewis Overton, age 66, of Bryant; passed away Wednesday March 7, 2007. The court, which could rule imminently or years from now, could send the case back to Judge Longoria for a hearing orfar less likelyoverturn her conviction. Write your message of sympathy today. Gilmore and his defense team, which included two civil attorneys versed in the intricacies of medical testimony, tried to counter the prosecutions claims that Hannah had poisoned Andrew and purposely delayed medical treatment. When Andrew started breathing funny, she told Hess, she had administered asthma medication with a nebulizer, hoping to open up his airways. I was convinced that we were in the presence of a crime.. That Larry is able to be with the children at all, much less raise them, is a huge blessing, he told me. He enjoyed everything he did, was always friendly and supportive. Although Cortes had been scheduled to testify for the prosecution, he was never put on the witness stand. He visited us in the country and brought his serinity along. In May 2017, Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez officially declared Overton innocent in the death of 4-year-old Andrew Burd, the child Overton and her husband, Larry Overton, were in the process of adopting before he died more than 10 years ago. She was born April 24, 1945 to Dabney Overton Sr. and Henrietta Mallory Overton and grew up in Warsaw, VA. She was graduated from St. Margaret's School in 1963 where she was awarded the Bishop's Prize all four years. But was this churchgoing young woman a vicious child killer? But after Hannahs conviction, the DAs office offered him several plea deals, each of which required him to acknowledge that he had intentionally caused Andrews death. Funeral arrangement under the care ofHeritage Funeral Home. We thought that he would stop turning to food for comfort when he learned that he could trust us.. 1 x 120' / Produced for Discovery Networks. Katy Vine has been a staff writer since 2002. Overton spent seven years in prison before the Texas Court of Appeals overturned her capital murder charges on September 17, 2014. I pray that you will bring Mom home soon.. Andrew seems very happy in this home.. We truly thought his obsession with food was a behavioral issue, not a medical one, Larry said. Box 70, Millers Tavern, Va.; St. Christopher's School, 711 St. Christopher's Road, Richmond, Va. 23226; or the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 1108 E. Main St. Suite 1600, Richmond, Va. 23219. And its full of great reads, yall. He was a good friend and a great dancer!! He was preceded in. Beginning next year, she will also receive an annuity. Larry turned them down. He acted more like a toddler than a preschooler, they noted; if he wanted an object, he pointed to it and grunted. I am happy that he has gone before us because I know if God has taken him before so many other people then he must be going to someplace better. My prayers to the family. I wasnt thinking, obviously, or I would have just taken him to the hospital, Hannah told the detective. How do you poison someone with a substance you dont know the contents of? That Hannah had not sought immediate medical attention did not change his view. Hannah Overton Archives - Texas Monthly I feel honored to have shared his presence. Four months later, on October 2, 2006, Andrew fell suddenly and acutely ill while he was alone with Hannah. CORPUS CHRISTI - Early on Oct. 3, 2006, the morning after her neighbor Hannah Overton had rushed a dying 4-year-old boy to a nearby urgent care clinic, Kathi Haller got a visit from police. By the time Hannah took the stand, jurors appeared to have made up their minds. He and the kids return home the same day so that he can teach Sunday school the next morning. The Overtons had to remain at the Carvers home, where they had been staying to avoid the camera crews that were camped out on their own doorstep, and they were never to be left alone with the baby. The following evening, Andrew was dead. A committed Christian, he had gone on mission trips with his family since he was a child, including a fourteen-month stint in Papua New Guinea and several treks across Mexico. What a loss for all of us; he will be missed. To the Overton's; Please accept my deepest sympathy and condolences for your loss. But he was adamant that the boys death had not been accidental. But I was frustrated. Until then, she said, Andrew was doing nothing that my other kids hadnt done with the flu. . I would often see him riding with all the dogs in the back of the car. As you know, Dabney and I had a lot of good times and he was a dear friend and fraternity brother. Yet if anyone was up to the task, most everyone agreed, it was the Overtons, and Hannah in particular. I visited Hannah at the Murray Unit one bright, cloudless afternoon, when the warden granted her a few hours to speak with me. When Andrew complained of being hungry that afternoon, Hannah gave him more of the leftover soup. More:Hannah Overton, family celebrate her pregnancy months after she's declared innocent in boy's death. I believe that the same God who made him is with him now in the most immediate sense. 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. In October 2006 a four-year-old from Corpus Christi named Andrew Burd died mysteriously of salt poisoning. The importance of saying "I love you" during COVID-19, Effective ways of dealing with the grieving process, Solutions to show your sympathy safely during the Covid-19 pandemic. (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.) He was a very sweet and kind person. One of her favorite books to revisit is Ruth. We will always remember him fondly as a fellow Friend of Bandy Field. Hey dear, so sorry to hear this newstake care of yourself and your familythinking of you!! Dabney always took time to talk to people and was a friend to many. I could never thank my attorneys enough for fighting endlessly to prove my innocence and bring me home.. Funeral service for Wendell Leon Overton, 81, of Cullman, will be 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, November 24, 2021 in the Cullman Funeral Home Chapel. Against the backdrop of possible abuse, authorities wasted little time. It was later believed the boy suffered a rare medical condition called hypernatremia, which can cause fatal sodium levels in the body. Hess and a group of CPS workers were standing in the back with dark glasses on, their arms crossed, scowls on their faces, Carver said.