The trial for Julie Schenecker, whose children were found murdered at their Tampa Palms home, has begun.
Julie Schenecker, 53 — who was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder on January 28, 2011, for shooting her son Beau, 13, and daughter Calyx, 16, at the family’s Ashington Reserve home in Tampa Palms — is finally set to stand trial, after spending more than three years behind bars. However, she will not face the death penalty, which officials with the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office (SAO) initially had said they would seek in August 2011.
The SAO released recordings on April 8 of detectives speaking with Schenecker the day of the shootings, while getting her statement about what happened. Her responses to detectives sound slurred and mumbled, asking if they had, “left the kids where they lay.”
Tampa police found Schenecker unconscious in the home’s backyard, wearing a housecoat and bloodstained slippers. She suffered from a history of mental illness and was glassy-eyed and incoherent when she was found.
According to court records, on April 1, assistant state attorney Jay Pruner withdrew the SAO’s intent to seek the death penalty.
“The State of Florida shall not seek the imposition of the death penalty should the Defendant be convicted of First Degree Murder,” Pruner wrote.
SAO spokesperson Mark Cox said that, “after being provided overwhelming evidence of mitigation due to the mental health issues of the defendant, it was determined that the imposition of the death penalty in this case would not withstand the scrutiny of the Florida Supreme Court.”
Schenecker’s public defender Jennifer Spradley submitted a notice of intent to plead an insanity defense in October 2013.
Schenecker’s mental illness will play a factor in the trial, but some testimony won’t be heard. According to published reports, testimony about Schenecker slapping her daughter and, on a separate occasion, crashing a family vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and prescription medication won’t be heard. Circuit Judge Emmett Battles reportedly said that if any testifying doctors use those incidents to determine her sanity at the time of the murder, he could allow that testimony to be heard.
As previously reported in the New Tampa Neighborhood News, authorities say Schenecker shot her son Beau twice in the head with a .38-caliber handgun (purchased days before the shootings) while on the way home from soccer practice on January 27. The boy’s body was discovered under a blanket in the family’s SUV. Calyx was found shot in the back of the head in front of a computer in an upstairs bedroom.
Authorities were alerted by a family member who received an email from Julie Schenecker the night before she shot her children, stating that she was “at my wits end” and “will end this soon.”
Following the tragic deaths of his children at the hands of their mother, Col. Parker Schenecker (who was in the Middle East, serving in the U.S. Army when his children were murdered) started the Calyx & Beau Schenecker Memorial Fund to help provide scholarship opportunities to those in need in the Tampa Bay community.
Calyx also has been remembered at the Hillsborough Community College Dale Mabry campus (located across form Raymond James Stadium) for the second year during the Calyx Schenecker Art Infinitum, an art contest open to Tampa high school students. Although the art exhibit only runs through April 26 (probably when you’re reading this), the impressive display of artistic talent from Tampa’s students is worth the drive.
No further information currently is available about the Schenecker trial, but stay with NTNeighborhoodNews.com and these pages for continuing coverage.
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