Gaime's memory weak, doctor says

A deposition says the woman charged with her son's murder likely suffers from amnesia.

By CHASE SQUIRES

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 12, 2000

DADE CITY -- Five weeks after her youngest son was found dead in her minivan, Kristina Gaime had no memory of the events that led to his death, but she had theories -- including the involvement of her other son, a doctor testified in documents made public Tuesday.

Gaime, 35, was charged with murder and attempted murder after 6-year-old Mathew Rotell was found dead at the family's Land O'Lakes home. She was also accused of trying to kill her other son, Adam Rotell, who was then 8.

Pasco County investigators say she drugged the two boys sometime between the night of April 11 and the morning of April 12, 1999, and put them in her minivan, then directed the van's exhaust into the cabin. Gaime's mother found Mathew dead in the van the morning of the 12th, and found Adam and Gaime inside the home.

Gaime suffered unexplained injuries that night, including burns or blisters on her left ankle and buttocks and a head injury her attorneys say led to amnesia.

The case is still awaiting a trial, with defense attorneys claiming Gaime has no memory of the incident and can't assist in her defense. A hearing on her ability to stand trial is expected this summer.

But information about her condition continued to become public Tuesday when a second doctor's report on her condition was released.

Tampa physician Daniel J. Sprehe told prosecutors in a March deposition that he was reasonably certain that Gaime suffered from amnesia -- erasing memories of nearly the entire night her son died.

Another doctor, psychiatrist Irving B. Weiner, had testified Gaime suffered "quite severe" memory loss, possibly from a blow to the head.

Sprehe said Gaime appeared sincere when she could not recall anything from the time she ordered a pizza April 11 to the time she was awakened at University Community Hospital April 12, where she was treated with charcoal for a possible overdose.

Some memory may come back, the doctor said, but most of that night is gone for good.

"I think it's unlikely that she'll get a lot back," Sprehe said. "But she may get some back. . . . I think the post-concussion syndrome, the dementia, the amount of dementia I saw, is probably real."

Sprehe said he met with Gaime for nearly two hours at the jail on May 22, less than six weeks after the incident and 18 days after she was arrested.

Sprehe said Gaime theorized about what might have happened.

He said she told him maybe the family was attacked by an intruder, or maybe by her older son.

"That was another one of her theories, incidentally, that Adam may have been a bad boy and perpetrated things," the doctor said. "She said, "Adam threatened to kill Mathew several times last night. He has been very aggressive towards Mathew. . . . Adam was saying he wished Mathew would die and that he had never been born.' "

Sprehe said Gaime was never able to explain how she suffered her injuries.

"One of the theories was that she was attacked by an assailant. One theory was that maybe she was attacked by her son," Sprehe said. "One of the theories was that maybe she fell down the stairs. These are all theories."

Sprehe said he gave little weight to her theories.

"She tried to manufacture explanations for things based on stuff she had heard," he told prosecutor Phil Van Allen. "You see that in people who have amnesia."

Adam has been turned over to his father, Stephen Rotell. The boy has never, in any court document or statement, been the subject of an investigation. Prosecutors accuse Gaime alone.

Gaime remained Tuesday in the Pasco County jail at Land O'Lakes without bail. No trial date has been set.

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