A Montgomery County woman accused of killing her two children says she’s not criminally responsible for the crimes.
Catherine Hoggle is facing murder charges in the deaths of two of her children, 3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob, back in 2014. Their bodies have never been found.
Hoggle is being held at a psychiatric facility as she awaits trial. Now, her attorneys have filed documents in court asserting that she’s “not criminally responsible” for the alleged crimes “because of a mental disorder.” They say she lacked the ability to “appreciate the criminality of the alleged conduct” or “conform to the law.”
It’s Maryland’s form of an insanity defense.
“The burden is on the defendant, ultimately, to prove that they’re not criminally responsible,” explained Robert Bonsib, a criminal defense attorney not connected to the Hoggle case.
“What essentially you’re trying to determine is, does the person, when they engaged in the act, know that their act — know what they’re doing?” Bonsib said.
He said the intent to pursue this type of defense could result in additional mental health evaluations for Hoggle.
While it’s unclear exactly how it will play out in court, Bonsib says Hoggle could face trial on the murder charges and then — if found guilty — could ask the judge or jury to determine she was not responsible for the crime at the time of the alleged offenses, due to her mental health.
“The plea of not criminally responsible does not carry with it any admission or acknowledgement that you committed the acts that you are charged with committing,” Bonsib said.
Hoggle’s relatives have said she has schizophrenia and has been on many medications to deal with her condition.
She was charged with murder after Sarah and Jacob disappeared. While she was the last person known to have seen the children, she has never said where she took them or what may have happened to them.
Previous murder charges against Hoggle were dropped under Maryland law because she was repeatedly found not competent to stand trial.
Eleven years after Sarah, 3, and Jacob, 2, vanished, mom Catherine Hoggle faces new murder charges. Darcy Spencer joins Ted Oberg to dissect the latest.
Then, last summer, she was released from a psychiatric facility and put into a group home setting. That’s when she was indicted again on murder charges.
Since then, she has been found competent to stand trial.
“So, competency goes to your current mental state with respect to your ability to assist in your own defense,” Bonsib explained. “Criminal responsibility goes to your mental state at the time the act is alleged to have been committed.”
Hoggle is set to stand trial on the murder charges in October.
The state’s attorney’s office declined to comment on this latest development in the case.
News4 reached out to Hoggle’s attorney but has not heard back.
