The mental evaluations, submitted by lawyers in the case of 33-year-old Otty Sanchez paint a picture of a woman beaten, molested and diagnosed with various forms of psychosis, and in and out of hospitals for half a decade before she killed her infant son.
The court documents, obtained by KENS 5, were completed by three separate doctors who each evaluated Sanchez to determine her competency. Doctors Randall Sellers and Lucy Puryear conducted the interviews with Otty Sanchez in the weeks that followed the death of three-week-old Scott Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez.
In the interviews, Sanchez details using drugs for the first time in 2006. She says it was at that time that she first began to hear voices.
Drug use led her to Austin where she attempted to track down a former boyfriend named Victor . While in Austin she was admitted to the Austin State Hospital. Doctors at the hospital diagnosed her with psychosis; however, she was issued a prescription and released.
On June 20, 2008 Ms. Sanchez was seen at the Center for Healthcare Services in San Antonio. Court documents indicate that she was paranoid, mildly delusional, depressed and psychotic with hallucinations; her medication was changed.
While on the medication, the voices in Sanchez's head went away, but unable to afford the cost of the medication, Sanchez stopped taking the psychotropic medication.
Shortly after going off the meds, Sanchez became pregnant.
During her pregnancy she was sent to a counselor for depression, however, she did not want to go on any medication.
After the birth of baby Scott, Otty Sanchez slipped into further depression and the voices began to return.
On July 20, 2009, Ms. Sanchez was taken by EMS to Metropolitan Methodist Hospital. According to the report by Dr. Sellers, Otty Sanchez had auditory and visual hallucinations as well as delusions. Sanchez indicated that she needed to be hospitalized; however, she was discharged to her sister.
In the days leading up to the death of baby Scott, Sanchez says she was paranoid, fearing that people were spying on her and plotting to take her baby from her. Her paranoia became worse when the voices began to get worse. For days, Sanchez says, the voices told her that the devil was in her son; she would avoid looking into his eyes for fear of see[ing] the devil .
Through the course of her evaluation by Dr. Sellers, Sanchez elaborated on the circumstances surrounding the death of baby Scott and what the voices were saying. According to Sanchez, the voices told her that her mother had killed President John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, and that the KKK was mad at her mother for killing JFK.
In Sanchez's interview with Dr. Puryear, she says, the voices told me to hurt Scotty... he was going to be the apocalypse.
Further on the in the interview, Sanchez explains the decision to kill her son, saying, the voices told [me] to eat his insides, I was a harlot because I had committed adultery... there was a demon in my stomach. The demons would come out of her stomach if she ate Scotty. This had to be done by 5 in the morning. Scotty would evolve and he would no longer be possessed.
Sanchez says the act of eating her child made her gag and throw up , but the voices told her to eat again.
After her arrest for the death of Scotty, Otty Sanchez was taken to University Hospital where she continued to hear the voices, this time telling her that she was going to get a heart transplant and that she was going to be hurt.
Both Doctors Sellers and Puryear concluded after their evaluations that Otty Sanchez was suffering from mental illness.
In her report, Dr. Puryear wrote, It is my medical opinion that Ms. Otty Sanchez was incapable of telling the difference reality and her delusions.
Doctor Sellers echoed similar comments, writing, It is my opinion, based upon reasonable medical evidence that Ms. Sanchez had a severe mental illness, Paranoid Schizophrenia at the time of the alleged crime.
On Thursday, Otty Sanchez was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She will be sent to a state mental institution in Vernon, Texas where she will receive a yearly evaluation of her mental capacity by the court.
