All language subtitles for Episode 02 Attempted Murder Or Protective Mother

It seemed like
every time we turned around,

they were telling US,
"prepare yourself."

He wasn't gonna make it.

To think that somebody
would accuse me

of wanting to hurt my son,
it just...

My god, it just killed me.

If I was found guilty,

no cuddles at night,

no story time, no life at all.

For what?

For something I didn't even do.

A cleburne woman
faces allegations

of medical child abuse,

including lying
about her son's symptoms,

leading doctors to perform
unnecessary surgeries.

She is also accused of starving
her 13-year-old son, Colby,

who she says has been sick
since birth.

Police have revealed
that a casket

and a headstone for Colby

had been purchased
by the family.

The allegations
are in an indictment

which lays out everything

the prosecution says
she did that's a crime.

The first two counts are saying
that she fabricated symptoms

to get doctors
to perform surgeries

that didn't need
to be performed,

and that, that injured Colby.

The third count,

they say she starved Colby.

When she read that in my office,

she completely fell apart.

And then count four

is attempted murder.

They say that she actually,
by doing this,

attempted to murder her son.

Look at all his dark hair.

I wanted to touch him
and hold him so bad.

But it was like three,
almost four months,

before I could even hold him.

When we brought Colby home,

we came home on a heart machine.

We came home on oxygen.

He was nine inches long.

A child born that tiny,

you know you're gonna
have problems as you get older.

It seemed like every time
we turned around,

they were telling US,
"prepare yourself."

We just...
We wouldn't give up.

To this day, we don't give up.

He's got heart issues.

He has very low bone density.

You know, he's got issues
with his kidneys.

He's got,
gastro reflux disease.

Sit on the toilet.
Whenever you need to go,
you just say it.

He takes several things
to try to go to the bathroom.

Basically, his gi don't work.

It's just...
It's just not working properly.

It's never going
to work properly.

Unfortunately, he's going
to be on medicines

the rest of his life.

Colby, look at mommy.

The doctors told danita
"he's had all these problems,

"I mean, nothing seems
to be working well for him,

"and we're afraid we've kind of

"reached the end of the road
for Colby.

"There are no more surgeries
that we can do...

"And we're gonna refer you
to hospice."

Hi.

How are you?
Good, how are you?

Running a little bit late,
sorry.
That's okay.

I know that you've never been
on trial before for anything,

and you probably have never even
been in a courtroom

and seen a real trial happening.

And you're gonna need
to be strong.

The most hurtful thing

is gonna be people are gonna
say things about you, you know?

And it's gonna
go to your core.

And I want to toughen you up
to that process.

Here's an affidavit by Connie.

"We determined that this child
both desired and could

"tolerate solid foods and fluids

"and had minimal reports
of pain.

"His mother refused to have any
food or drink brought to Colby,

"stating his eating would only
'prolong the inevitable.'"

that's what she told me.

Connie told me that eating
and drinking is prolonging him.

I didn't know what
"prolonging the inevitable" was

until she said it to me.

"Prior to moving Colby
to our suite,

"mother and father
purchased a casket,

"headstone, and made
all the funeral arrangements

"for Colby."

We would have never
known what to do.

All the stuff
that she said I did,

was all direction from her.

She would tell US,
"I'm in control.

"We advise the parents what to
do, but we have the final say."

She says, "on many
well-documented occasions,

"the mother asked

"if there was just something
we could give him

"to make him go to sleep
and not wake up."

No. I just wanted him
not to feel the pain,

where he could just enjoy a day
where he would feel good.

They've taken it out of context.

I just said, "hey, you told US
you're going to
keep him comfortable..."

"And you're not."
"...And he's not going to be in
pain, but he feels everything.

"And he's not comfortable
and he's not feeling good."

She says,
"if intervention by authorities
is not instituted,

"it is my expert opinion

"that this child
will die prematurely."

Do you hear what she's saying?
Yeah.

She's going to come
in the courtroom,

she's going to get
on that witness stand

and say, "his mother
was trying to kill him."

Me and that accusation
don't go in the same sentence.

I mean, I can't even
wrap my head around it.

It destroys me as a mother,
it destroys me as a human being.

It feels like somebody
took a knife and stabbed it
in my heart,

and they keep stabbing me
over and over.

This is...

My whole heart, right there.

Colby, Colton and Clint.

It's my whole world right there.

First day of school.

They had to have the mohawk
thing going there.

I know what's being said
about me.

I'm frightened that the jurors
are going to be blindsided

and I'm not gonna get
a fair trial.

My view of danita is
that she is absolutely innocent

of these charges.

I would far rather
defend someone who was guilty.

That sounds weird,

but it doesn't feel weird
to defend someone who's guilty.

What feels horrible
is defend somebody

that you believe with every bit
of your being is innocent.

You can get so into the details
of this case

that it just...
It just consumes you.

There's so much noise.
There's so much junk.

I think the jury needs
to understand, logically,

how we got
from point a to point z.

I mean, this is not
a child abuse case

where a kid has
a broken bone.

He's been in a hospital setting,

under nursing and doctor care.

So what are they gonna
accuse her of?

I mean...
Well, they got it
figured it out.

If it's malnutrition, well,
it's on your watch.

Yeah.
He's in the hospital.

Right.

Are you starving him?

How are you accusing the momma
of malnutrition?

He's in your facility.

And if you remember
counts one and two,

she made doctors perform
unnecessary surgeries

by giving false
and fictitious information.

Really? What?

What could the momma say

that could cause a doctor
to cut on a child?

And god forbid
if you question a doctor,

or things don't go
exactly as predicted...

They're gonna turn
the table on you.

This is a recipe of how
an innocent, great momma

finds herself
a criminal defendant.

Hey.
Hi, mom. Hi, dad.

Hey, kid.
-Just in time for lunch.

Is this from that pizza place
down the road?

Yum!
I suppose
you're gonna eat mine.

I'm just probably
gonna have one.

Maybe two.

Ellen's going
to the doctor today, your aunt.

Do you know why?
'Cause her hair's falling out.

She told me
last night, she said,
"my hair's falling out

"because I'm so stressed
about this."
Yeah.

So she's going
to the doctor, you know?

I don't think that y'all,
in your age, should have
to be put through this.

And I don't think that
any of our family
should be put through this.

But...
We're all in the same boat.

Yeah.

There's my tree.
Yeah.

That's it.
It'll always be
my hideaway tree.

Yeah.

But it's dying now.

It's all dying.

The only thing
that danita's ever done

is to take care of her boys.

I can't fathom this.

I can't fathom...
I'm an investigator.

I did 30 years with the
fort worth police department.

If you're gonna look
at a situation, investigate it,

from top to bottom.

How can you be guilty of

taking care of your children?

And that's what this is.

Danita is charged
with deceiving doctors

into performing
unnecessary surgeries,

which were, in fact,
harmful to her child.

So, I wanna know,

were these obviously
unnecessary surgeries?

'Cause if they weren't
even unnecessary surgeries,

then the accusation, you know,

falls on the first prong.
I mean, it's not even close.

I'm worried
about the fact that

doctors, who people hold
in high esteem,

are the accusers.

They have
automatic credibility.

It's kind of like
police officers.

Jurors start out
believing police officers,

and they're going to
start out believing

these medical professionals.

Hello.
-Good morning.

Good morning, doctor.
Come on in. Nice to see y'all.

How are you?
Doing great.

How you doing?
Nice to meet you all.
You first.

You're too nice to me.
Finally.
Come on in.

We're primarily concerned

about the surgical procedures

that are named
in the indictment.

Is there a case

for the ileostomy to be,

unnecessary?

I don't think you'd have
a case at all for this.

Ileostomies, it's a fairly
simple procedure.

It's like,
okay, they'd gone through

all the normal,
non-surgical interventions

for chronic
and recurrent constipation,

let's try just to bypass
the colon altogether.

So, let's give
his colon a break,

you know, and make it
not to have to do anything,
basically, for a while.

Um, and if it works
we can reattach it, you know?

Ileostomy takedowns
are a normal procedure

for a pediatric gi doctor.

To me, that was
the logical progression.
Right.

It's not risky, it's not
dangerous, it's certainly messy.

You have to deal with the whole
bags and poop and all
that fun stuff.

But it's, um...

I thought it was a reasonable
thing to do at the time.

So it was totally reasonable?
-Yeah.

And...
You're not going to make
a surgeon do anything, anyways.

You know, I mean,
we have to justify what we do

to our peers, we have to justify
to insurance companies.

If things go bad,

if this child dies in surgery
or there's some complication,

and it goes to court,
how do I justify this?

Right.
And his ileostomy
is easily justifiable.

I mean, I don't understand

why this is a criminal case
at all, to be honest with you.

I mean, it's certainly
not every child's story.

Most kids never go
to the hospital at all,

but in a former preemie,
genetic child,

I mean, this is pretty typical.

Wow.

He is so smart,
and so level-headed,

and has such common sense.

I just wish the other doctors

and other
people involved in this

had as much common sense
and was level-headed as him,

and we wouldn't be here now.

Yeah, he's like,
"I just can't believe
this is a criminal case." But...

You're right.
-Yeah, but here we are.

Here we are.

Say hi, Colby.

He's a little sleepy.

Colby, say hi.
Hi!

Hi, Colby.

Wow!

Colby's primary problem
was being able
to eliminate waste.

But the worst part
of Colby's life

was this six-month
period of time

that started around
August and September of 2015.

This is at the point
when they tell danita

that Colby is terminal.

That he needed to go to hospice,
and they're stunned.

Colby has always
survived every...

Every problem he's ever had.

And in order
to be referred to hospice,

there has to be a,
prognosis by the doctor

that the kid's got six months
or less to live.

And this was very,
very devastating

to danita and Clint
and her entire family.

Today, we're just going
to talk about what you know,

and then prepare you for trial
and what we're
actually gonna ask.

So it's back in the hospital,

they came in and said, "well,
there's nothing else
we can do for him.

"We're going to have to
bring in palliative."

That was a shock
to everybody.
Because...

They had a plan, they told US,

"well, you know, okay,
we could do
the ileostomy, but..."

If that doesn't work,
they could take his colon out.
Yeah.

Yeah, they never said, "well,
if this doesn't work..."

"We're done." They never said
that. It was all rosy.

"This is going to improve
his life.

"This is gonna fix the problem."

And then they go,
"nothing else we can do."-

"we're just gonna have to
bring in palliative care."

I was like, "wait, wait, wait.

"That's for... that's for people
that are on hospice.

"That's for, um, older people.

"That's for, um, cancer people."

"That's, you know, what...
This is... this is a
13-year-old child

"that you said..."

Yeah.
You know, "this is the fix."

Right.
And how do you go
from there to, "he's dying"?

I don't think
Colby was terminal at all.

I think that Colby was sick.

He was definitely sick.

And the injustice
that was done to danita tutt

was done to her by the doctors

at cook's children's hospital
in fort worth, Texas.

That's when they said,
"there's nothing else we can do.

"There's not another surgery
we can do.

"There's not another fix
we can do, but he's terminal."

And really, that's what
brought about

this whole nightmare
for danita.

Ronald McDonald house
is a place that is located
near the hospital,

so that people who travel,
who have sick loved ones,

don't have to stay in a hotel.

You okay, danita?
Yes.

Ronald McDonald house
let Connie

have a room where she can take
her... her sick ones
to pass away.

Connie said to danita,

"we'll move him
to Ronald McDonald

"and he can pass away there."

To be accused
of hurting my own son,

I literally want to throw up.

It breaks my heart and shatters
it into a million pieces.

It's okay, danita.
I'm so sorry.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea
to bring you here.

No, I'll be fine.
I've just gotta get a minute.

How are you, buddy?
Good.

This is a very
close family.

And they're all witnesses to

some key conversations
and exchanges of information

that the state's witnesses
may now try to deny.

We were down there
every day.

Every day
that he was at hospice?
Right.

So you're
there every day.

Did she starve him
in your presence?

No. Never.
-Did you ever see him eat?

There was always food there
for him to eat.-

but when you
look at your daughter,

do you see any truth
to those allegations?

I had a 40-year career
in this field,

and if it was something
that I suspected,

I would have been
the first to jump on it.

Daughter or no daughter?
Daughter, no daughter.

Connie... she's the one
that cut everything off,

no food or drinks.

But I continued to bring him
food and drink.

Then on may 4th,

Connie wants to have
a family meeting.

She said, "two weeks ago,
I was positive

"Colby was dying of sepsis..."
Blood disorder.

"The blood infection
has miraculously disappeared."

Boom. These
are her exact words.

"She stated that she did not
know how this happened

"because Colby had not had
a full course of antibiotics."

Here we're sitting here,

we've got a son
that we think is dying...

And all of a sudden,

he's miraculously cured.

This is when she stated

she wanted all of US to leave
while they observed

Colby alone
for three days and nights.

We left him there that day.

Clint and danita called me,

and says,

"we can't do this.

"We wanna go get Colby."

Now, this is not a hospital.

This is not signing anybody in
and out or anything like that.

This is
a come-and-go place.

And I told them,

"do what you need to do."

You gotta look at this.

Connie has led these
people down the path

of, "your kid is dying,
you need to make
the funeral arrangements."

She has led them
down the path of death...

And Colby's starting
to look a little better.

Danita's furious.

'Cause she still
thinks he's dying,

although she's asking,
"why is he eating?"

I think Connie got a little
worried about Connie.

Danita called.
She says,

"somebody's here again.
There's two ladies at my door."

She says, "I think it's cps."

I thought it was no big deal,

because there hadn't been
any type of abuse at all, ever.

And so, I just assumed we would
explain what went on,
and they would

make their report
and get back to US.

And then, all of
a sudden, he's gone.

A 13-year-old
with complex medical issues

since birth, and a mother
devoted to his care.

But child services
have now taken that boy

away from his home,
and the mother
has been arrested.

Colby and his younger
brother have both been

taken into cps custody.

We cried every night...

Because we had no idea
where they took him.

Can you imagine not knowing
where your child is?

That should tell you
all you need to know.

If cps is dismissing
their case, there is no case.

But yet,
the district attorney

continues with
the prosecution.

What I'm looking at
now are Facebook posts

that they have gathered
as part of their investigation.

And, this one
here, for example...

"What an amazing night
for wings of hope.

"Colby was recognized
and did a speech

"that came straight from his
heart. So proud and amazed

"at the journey our son
has been on and overcome.

"Thank you to
everyone who came."

They're trying to
paint a picture here

of someone who,
24/7 is talking about

her son's medically
fragile condition.

Even if she were
talking about it 24/7,

so what?
Why is that a crime?

They're saying
she fits this profile,

this thing
that they're calling

Munchausen by proxy syndrome.

In essence, she is
the kind of person

who enjoys the attention,

that comes with
having a child

who is medically fragile

and therefore, exaggerates
symptoms or fabricates symptoms

in order to induce doctors to
perform these medical procedures

that in turn,
get her this attention

that people who suffer from
this syndrome supposedly crave.

If they can put
that label on her,

basically, in their mind,

that's going to prove
that she's guilty.

We're now joined by
Dr. Jamye coffman,

who is a child abuse
pediatrician

at cook's children's medical
center in fort worth.

What are you doing
that others aren't doing?

Well, what we have
at our institution,

we have a case
management system,

and if they have concern,
they'll send the cases to me.

And I review them,
and I have five to 10 of those

a month on my desk
that I'm reviewing.

Five to 10 a month?
Yes.

Yes, that we're reviewing.

And then out of those,
about one a month

rise to the level
to be reported.

Interestingly enough,
we have this little flood

of Munchausen by proxy cases

coming from cook's
children's hospital

to the tarrant county
da's office.

When I got this case
and I was kind of
researching it,

I found that there have
only been like two convictions

throughout the whole
United States.

And you have to ask yourself,
"well, if this is very rare,

"why such an overflow
in tarrant county?"

And, of course, I've looked
deeper into that

and I know the answer,
that we've got this doctor

over at cook's
children's hospital.

A Munchausen expert, and she
comes to court for everything

the district attorney's office
needs, and they have now

convicted somewhere in
the neighborhood of five women

of these crimes,
and saying that they're crazy

by having Munchausen by proxy.

How about
I blow, you tie?

I'll tie.

It is Colby's 16th birthday,

and he's been telling everyone
that he's getting a car

for his birthday
and he's going to

come pick everybody up
and drive them around.

You know, we wanna try
and have some kind of normalcy.

We wanna have a little,
you know, some kind of fun.

We need to be
able to

live like we're not dying
inside all the time.

Have I thought about
if I was found guilty?

Yeah. I mean,

you're talking about

never getting to see
our boys,

never getting to attend
another birthday party.

No christmases.

No Thanksgiving.

No cuddles at night.

No life at all.

Colby, how old
are you today?

How old are you?
Sixteen.

Sixteen.

Make a wish.

I did
everything right,

and here I am
in this mess.

My heart is racing,

my legs are shaking.

It's emotionally hard.

Why... how wouldn't it be
emotionally hard?

I'm the... I'm a mother,

but, you know,
for the first time,

we get to tell our story.

What's at stake is

two little boys
not having their mom,

the disruption
of the whole family.

This is life-changing,

this can ruin her marriage,

her freedom,
her ability to

see her kids,

to raise them... yeah,

everything's
at stake here.

You're critiqued
on the way your hair is,

you're critiqued on
the way you move,

if you flinch or if you blink...

I mean, I'm being critiqued
on almost everything.

Most times I feel
like I wanna vomit,

and the other times I feel
I just wanna cry my eyes out.

Well, it's been kind
of a crazy week.

We tore up the doctors.

Not a single doctor
got on the stand

and said,

"she said he was in pain,
and that's a lie."

They... they didn't
call you a liar.

Um, and not a single
doctor said

they so relied

upon any statement
made by you

that that caused them to perform
an unnecessary surgery.

So that's...
That's great in our favor.

We've had a good week.

That doesn't mean
next week is gonna be,

you know... we're gonna
take blows, okay?

Okay.
I'll see you Monday.

I feel like we had
a good week.

I feel like the lies
are starting to be exposed.

I feel like the truth
is starting to come out,

and I feel like everybody
that's in that courtroom is

getting to see a whole
different side of the story.

Does it hurt? Yeah,
it hurts.

Am I taking hard blows?
Yeah, I'm taking hard blows.

Do I just wanna, you know,

crawl out of my skin
and run away? Yeah...

But I have to sit
there and I have to take it,

and I have to be
as strong as I can be.

Because I've stood on the truth
from day one,

and I'm still standing
to this day.

Okay.

It was so good yesterday.

You know,
we got Connie!

And then,

we get up today, and we

get more of Connie,

and I felt like it was okay.

So they had
one witness left,

and Dr. Jamye coffman
is their clean-up lady.

I know when I'm getting hit,

and we haven't
really taken a punch.

No.

But jamye coffman is there
to throw that punch.

Right.
-She sure is.

She claims she's gone
through 11,000, 12,000

medical records,

and then she's gone back

and looked at your
Facebook posts...-

...and she's found
a discrepancy,

and therefore you're a liar.

And if you're a liar
in your Facebook posts,

you're a liar to the doctor.

And if you lied to the doctor,

then you must be guilty.

But everything
that somebody told me,

is what I put on Facebook.
-Right.

And they may or
may not be

reflected in the records.
Correct.

So, looks like 29,

instances that she says

are gonna be lies,

to get attention
because of Colby's problem.

So, let's see what
the Facebook post says,

and then let's look
for a medical record

that we could argue

supports your Facebook post.

Mechanical malfunction
of the button device.

Just 'cause I didn't post
on the day we did it,

I post a few days after.

That's fine.
If the Facebook post
says it,

this medical record
says it too.

At least 20 blood
transfusions.
Twenty.

Twenty-one, 22, 23...
She's pulling things out
of her butt now.

Tellin' you, she's writing
whatever she wants

for the district attorney.

Can I see that?
Yes.

Let's keep everything
together.

This, this is not
from this book.

Okay, now wait a minute,

let's get something straight.

You don't pull from that book
and hand Mike ware anything...

Well, no,
he asked for...
We'll never find it.

Okay.
This is going to have
to be organized.

Okay.
Okay?

This is not panic time.

Okay, this is hold
your together.

Yeah.
Okay?

Amen.

She came in for one thing
and one thing only,

to, you know,
accuse me of Munchausen.

She's not a psychologist.

She's not a psychiatrist.

And I think Terri
did a very good job of

making that known to the jury

that, "you're not qualified."

I think the last few days,

we've done our best
to tell danita's story.

We have taken such
an aggressive

plan, to call witnesses

and defeat this.

I don't see

the evidence to convict
her. I do not.

Okay, so,

let's just kind of reassess
where we are, guys.

It's Friday afternoon,
it's the end of three weeks

of jury trial.

Jury's sitting there wondering,

"how much more of this
am I gonna hear?"

And, you know, we have a lot
of witnesses

that we can still call.

Let's think about
the big picture.

Um,

they're gonna put on
some kind of rebuttal.

So, any further witnesses
we put on

has to be with that in mind.

That's right.

And any,

weaknesses they have

or exposure they have
on cross-examination

has to be

kept in mind when
we make that decision too.

Danita, I assume it's still
very much your choice
not to testify.

But I know the story
better than anybody.

I know what was said to me,

I know what he was eating
and drinking.

Danita, don't.

They would hang you
out to dry.

It would be all
about your Facebook.

Is it a crime to vent to people?

Is it a crime to talk
to support groups?
It is now.

You also know what
they would do with it.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Even though I could tell
the story better than anybody,

I'm not going to let them

sink their claws into me

for days, trying to
rip me apart,

more than what they've tried
to rip me apart already.

I think it's wise.
I think you don't put yourself
through that.

You've gone through enough.

We're gonna win.

I can tell you.

They have not
brought forth

any credible evidence

to convict danita.

She should be found
not guilty so fast,

and that's what haunts me.

This is the worst part
of the whole thing.

It's a waiting game,
and it's miserable.

My gut twisted
all night long.

I don't know if the jury is

sophisticated enough
to figure it out.

We have to face,

the "what if."

What if you are found guilty?

I've been honestly
hoping that they've put
themselves in my shoes.

You know, the only thing
I'm guilty of

is going and picking up my son,

you know, and I had
every right to do that.

And I'd do it again
in a heartbeat.

Unbelievable.

A mother from
cleburne has been found guilty,

of starvation and
attempted murder.

Danita was found guilty

of counts three and four
of the indictment.

She was found not guilty

of counts one and two.

The guilty

was starvation.

And the guilty was
attempted murder.

When he read count three
and said "guilty,"

I instantly got sick and...

Started to cry, and...

My heart

hurt for danita having to sit
there and...

Do that and hear that.

We're all feeling,

"did we do everything
right for danita?"

It's so heartbreaking.

They will have her
in solitary, basically,

and really,

that's for her
own protection.

This is, you know,
an alleged offense

involving a child.
You know, it's...

It's a brutal world inside

the jail.

Are you there, hon?

Yeah.

Love you.

Go ahead, honey.

We will do that.
-We will.

And...

Okay, I'll do it.

Stay strong, honey.

All right. All right,
wear the full armor.

You remember what...
What,

Paul said,

"wear the full armor."

All right, honey. Bye-bye.

God, I'm so angry.

Mom, don't wanna
get up...

It's time to...

Happy birthday!

I really,

sincerely,

with every fiber of my being,

believe that there's been

a terrible mistake
by the jury here.

They absolutely got it wrong,
and...

Those two precious little boys
of hers,

her husband,

her mom, her dad,

Clint's parents
that live next door,

they're such
a tight-knit family,

so close.

And this is going

to harm them all,

not just punishing danita.

Do you see my baby?

Isn't he precious?