Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Delays in getting medical reports and depositions force the postponement of the murder trial of the Land O'Lakes mother accused of killing her 6-year-old son.
By CHASE SQUIRES
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 1, 2001
DADE CITY -- Circuit Judge Maynard Swanson said Friday he was disappointed by a proposal to postpone Kristina Gaime's high-profile trial, but after hearing from both sides, he agreed there was nothing else he could do.
Trial for the Land O'Lakes woman accused of murdering her youngest son and trying to kill her other son, scheduled for Dec. 10, was postponed to March 18.
Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Chief Judge David Demers gave Swanson permission to hear the case over two weeks beginning March 18. Swanson will be transferred from covering criminal cases to civil cases in January, but Demers' ruling allows him to hear Gaime's case.
"We need to set this case down, and, come what may, it's going to be tried," Swanson said.
Gaime, 37, has been in jail since she was released from a hospital after her May 1999 arrest. She is charged with the April 1999 murder of her 6-year-old son, Mathew Rotell, and the attempted murder of her other son, Adam Rotell, then 8. Investigators say she drugged the boys, put them in her minivan at their Land O'Lakes home, directed the exhaust into the cabin and climbed inside with them.
Gaime and Adam were found inside the home alive, but Mathew was found dead in Gaime's minivan.
Prosecutor Phil Van Allen told Swanson that delays in obtaining medical reports and depositions, plus the addition of witnesses this fall, made trying the case impossible.
A key sheriff's deputy, necessary for two scheduled pretrial hearings, has undergone surgery and will be unavailable for four weeks, he said.
Defense attorneys Bob Nutter and Angelo Ferlita said they were disappointed with the delays, but Nutter admitted there appeared to be no way to try the case this month.
Two defense motions challenging the search of Gaime's home and testimony of her surviving son will also be rescheduled.
Gaime was in court Friday and appeared agitated. She attempted to address Swanson, but the judge recommended her attorneys handle any matters.
Gaime's father, Gary McDuffie, said his daughter is discouraged by the latest delay and wants a court order requiring better medical attention while she is awaiting trial.
Gaime has pleaded not guilty. Her attorneys have filed notice of the plan to argue Gaime was insane at the time of her son's death due to "severe mental and emotional defects."