Gosney’s attorney filed a motion on Monday to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, and Butler County Common Pleas Judge Noah Powers II set an April 26 hearing.
Hamilton will have his next hearing on April 12. His attorney said multiple motions will be filed soon.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Court-appointed attorneys David Washington for Gosney and Jeremy Evans for Hamilton previously entered not guilty pleas on behalf of the defendants, and Powers set bond at $2 million for Gosney and $750,000 for Hamilton.
Washington filed a motion last week indicating his intention to pursue a not guilty by reason of insanity plea and a question of competency for Gosney to stand trial.
“(Gosney) struggles to assist in her defense and counsel has serious concerns regarding defendant’s mental health,” Washington wrote in the brief motion.
Washington told the Journal-News he is concerned about Gosney’s mental health and her circumstances at the time “the alleged offenses occurred, that is the (not guilty by reason of insanity plea).”
He added that the competency question is based primarily on the statement she made at arraignment in Middletown Municipal Court on March 1.
“I have a learning disability … I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Gosney told Judge James Sherron when he read the charges against her and asked if she wanted an court-appointed attorney.
Law enforcement and search and rescue teams have continued to search the Ohio River in Lawrenceburg, Ind., for the boy’s body, but it has not been recovered.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Middletown police say Gosney confessed to killing Hutchinson, a first-grader at Rosa Parks Elementary, as he clung to her minivan when she attempted to abandon him and his two siblings at Rush Run Wildlife Area, an Ohio Department of Natural Resources park in Preble County.
Gosney and Hamilton put Hutchinson’s body in a spare room under a window at their Crawford Street home, they told police. At about 3 a.m. Feb. 28, they drove down Interstate 275 in the van to the Lawrenceburg, Ind., area and threw the body into the Ohio River, according to police.
Gosney and Hamilton are facing felony crimes against all three children, including murder, involuntary manslaughter, gross abuse of a corpse and endangering children for Gosney and kidnapping, gross abuse of a corpse, kidnapping and endangering children for Hamilton.
According to the Preble County Sheriff’s Office report, Gosney said she was under pressure from Hamilton to get rid of Hutchinson and his two siblings, ages 9 and 7. The 29-year-old mother drove the three children in a 2005 Dodge Caravan to Rush Run Wildlife Area to abandon them.
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