Posted: 9/13/2008 at 09:48 AM
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Joanne Hill gets no sympathy from me.
The 32-year-old mother drowned her four-year-old daughter. Her beautiful little girl, Naomi, had cerebral palsy and was hard of hearing. Joanne Hill was legally drunk when she arrived at the hospital via a taxi at 3:35 in the morning, holding her daughter in a blanket. It was too late for Naomi. She had been murdered by her mother--eight hours before.
[Photo description: Head shot of Naomi, brown eyes and a tumble of light brown curls, in a red sweatshirt with a white collar.]
Her husband testified in court that Joanne could not accept her daughter's mild disability. One news report stated that Joanne planned the murder after her husband would not agree to give the little girl up for adoption. On Monday, the jury trial began, but by Tuesday a new jury had to be sworn in for legal reasons, the BBC reported:
A new jury was sworn in and the case was opened again by Michael Chambers QC on Tuesday afternoon.
He described to the jury of eight men and four women how after drowning Naomi, Hill dressed the little girl and drove around for eight hours before carrying her body into the casualty department of a local hospital. He told the court how witnesses will describe how Hill, an advertising saleswoman, was "embarrassed" by her daughter, who wore callipers and had hearing difficulties, and was irritated by some of the effects of her medication. Mr Chambers said: "The prosecution say the defendant could not come to terms with the fact that Naomi was disabled, suffering from a mild form of cerebral palsy affecting her ability to walk. "She left a lot of the everyday care of Naomi to her husband Simon, she even suggested to him that Naomi should be adopted.
He described to the jury of eight men and four women how after drowning Naomi, Hill dressed the little girl and drove around for eight hours before carrying her body into the casualty department of a local hospital.
He told the court how witnesses will describe how Hill, an advertising saleswoman, was "embarrassed" by her daughter, who wore callipers and had hearing difficulties, and was irritated by some of the effects of her medication. Mr Chambers said: "The prosecution say the defendant could not come to terms with the fact that Naomi was disabled, suffering from a mild form of cerebral palsy affecting her ability to walk.
"She left a lot of the everyday care of Naomi to her husband Simon, she even suggested to him that Naomi should be adopted.
"But he would not agree to that because he doted on her."
I wish Joanne had the opportunity to meet Glenda Watson Hyatt, the Left Thumb Blogger here at Disaboom. Or maybe Joanne could have found laughter in one of Josh Blue's routines. Perhaps if she met Kara Swims here on Disaboom, she would have envisioned Naomi obtaining her Doctorate degree someday.
Who knows what would have happened if Joanne had some positive role models in her daughter's life. Would Joanne have had second thoughts? Would Joanne have seen the possibilties for her daughter instead of the disabilities?
Now sadly, we'll never know.
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