Supervision release sought

A former Medical Lake woman who was legally insane when she stabbed her 8-year-old daughter to death in September 1999 is trying to convince a Spokane County jury she no longer needs court supervision.

In testimony that began Tuesday, 46-year-old Sharon L. Curry led jurors through a rambling account of drug-induced paranoia that led to the death of her youngest daughter, Jessica. She said she had been abusing illegal and prescription drugs since she was 13 years old and was giving herself extra doses of a prescription stimulant when she killed her daughter.

She was acquitted of first-degree murder on grounds that she was suffering a drug-induced psychosis when she stabbed her daughter and herself in a car outside their Medical Lake home.

On the day of the stabbing, Curry said, she and her daughter twice ran out of gasoline while trying to flee numerous people she thought were out to get them. They returned to their home, which she believed was bugged and unsafe, and decided to spend the night in their car, Curry told jurors.

Then, she testified, Jessica said, “Momma, we don’t have nothing for protection. What are we doing to do if they try to get us?”

Curry said they agreed to hold hands and sneak into the house to arm themselves.

“I got a butcher knife for me and a little steak knife for her, for protection,” Curry said.

Back in the car, she said, they sat facing each other in the front seat and talked until Jessica decided to go to sleep.

“She said, ‘I love you, Momma Angel,’ ” Curry testified. “That was her nickname for me. I told her, ‘I love you too, Baby Angel.’ That’s what we called each other. We gave each other a kiss and then she went to sleep.”

Then, Curry said, she thought she saw “all kinds of people” in a nearby field and heard voices telling her that she and Jessica weren’t safe because they were in a convertible. She said the voices told her “they were going to get us” and the only way to stop them was to go to heaven.

“We were to go right now, and then I heard a voice say, ‘Now or never,’ ” Curry testified. “And then I seen all of these people running for us. I grabbed the knife and I pulled her forward to me and I stabbed her in the back and then I pushed her forward and I stabbed me, and then her (again) and me.”

She said the voices told her to scream and yell, “and I heard the neighbors come out and tell me to shut up, I was waking up the neighborhood dogs.” She said she pushed Jessica out of the way and lay down on the grass to die, but woke up in a hospital instead of heaven.

Testifying Wednesday on Curry’s behalf, private psychologist E. Clay Jorgenson said Curry is given to histrionics, having “a high need for approval or for people to notice her,” but she no longer poses a danger to herself or others.

Curry was allowed to leave Eastern State Hospital in July 2003 and has been living on her own with close supervision.

Eastern State Hospital psychologist Daniel Lloyd-Flynn testified that – except for violating an order not to contact her surviving children – she has done well on conditional release and her mental illness is in remission. But Lloyd-Flynn said he believes there is a “significant and noteworthy” possibility that Curry will suffer another drug-induced psychosis without continued supervision.

Lloyd-Flynn likened Curry’s situation to alcoholics who sometimes relapse after years of sobriety.

For a little over a year, state law has allowed jurors to ask written questions of witnesses, and a juror asked Curry why she objected to continued supervision.

“So I can have my life back,” Curry answered, adding that she also wants to be free to travel and talk to children about the dangers of mind-altering drugs.

“This is my calling,” Curry said. “This is what I have to do.”

The trial continues this afternoon.