Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Gaime timeline

By Times Staff Writer
Published October 6, 2005

APRIL 12, 1999: Kristina Gaime, a 34-year-old nurse, is found semiconscious in her Land O'Lakes townhome. Her son Mathew, 6, is dead in a minivan in the garage. Tests reveal Mathew died of carbon monoxide poisoning and a morphine overdose. Gaime's other son, Adam, 8, survives. Sheriff's deputies seize letters written by Gaime that read like suicide notes and garden hose used to feed exhaust from the van's tail pipe to its interior.

APRIL 22, 1999: Because of bad blood between Gaime and ex-husband Stephen Rotell, Mathew is memorialized in two funerals, one for Gaime's family, another for Rotell's.

MAY 4, 1999: Gaime is charged with murdering Mathew and trying to kill Adam. Possible motive: When Mathew died, Gaime was two weeks from a court hearing that could have given her ex-husband custody of the boys.

DEC. 13, 2000: Gaime's attorneys propose an insanity defense. AUG. 8, 2001: Angelo Ferlita, Gaime's lawyer, questions the warrants used to search Gaime's home.

2003: Gaime's family hires a new lawyer, Lyann Goudie, who works for prominent Tampa lawyer Barry Cohen.

FEB. 17, 2004: Gaime's family abandons the insanity defense and challenges the search warrants in court. Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper says the warrants covered only a search for medicine and throws out much of the prosecution's evidence, including the garden hose and Gaime's letters.

APRIL 20, 2005: 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously upholds Tepper's ruling.

MAY 5: Prosecutors present an affidavit signed by Adam, stating his mother fed him and his brother "vitamins and unknown white pills," which authorities said was morphine. Gaime is kept in jail while she awaits trial.

JUNE 7: Gaime's defense team seeks the medical, psychological and school records of Adam. Tepper places the records under seal to shield them from public scrutiny.

Compiled by Times researchers

[Last modified October 6, 2005, 01:15:08]