PORT ANGELES — Lauryn Louise Last did not know what she was doing in January 2009 when she waived her rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present during police questioning about the death of her newborn boy, a psychologist said Thursday.
During three hours of testimony in Clallam County Superior Court, Anthony Eusanio of Edmonds said the impact of the physical and sexual abuse the Port Angeles teenager endured as a child and the drugs she took the day police questioned her severely compromised her ability to grasp the implications of not invoking her Miranda rights when asked by police.
Last, now 18, gave self-incriminating statements that led to a second-degree murder charge in the Dec. 31, 2008, death of her full-term infant.
“Lauryn Last put her baby face-down into a toilet and allowed it to drown for several minutes until it died,” according to the statement of Port Angeles Police Officer Jesse Winfield contained in court files.
“She then threw her son into the trash can outside in a plastic garbage bag.”
Last, then 16, was charged as an adult Jan. 2, 2009, with first-degree murder, a charge later reduced to second-degree murder.
The maximum sentence for the second-degree murder charge is 18 years and four months.
Last was represented Thursday by John Hayden of Clallam Public Defenders.
Sexual assault
Last’s child was fathered by her mother’s then-37-year-old boyfriend, who is now serving time in Colorado for sexual assault of Last as a child, Eusanio said.
The proceedings Thursday before Judge Ken Williams, intended to determine the admissibility of Last’s statements to police, were continued from Oct. 25.
If Williams rules that Last’s statements to police are inadmissible, “that would make it very difficult for the state to proceed,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Troberg said Thursday after the hearing.
“She spoke at length both in recorded statements and nonrecorded statements,” he added.
The hearing will continue again at 9 a.m. Dec. 2, when the proceedings are expected to conclude, although Williams is not expected to issue a ruling at that time, Troberg said.
Eusanio interviewed Last at a detention center a few weeks after she was charged, he said.
Administered tests
He administered 17 psychological tests and measurements, interviewed Last for four hours, tested her for four hours and wrote a 49-page report on the results.
Staff at the detention center — she’s now living with a relative on her own recognizance — described her as constantly talking to herself in a “chatty” manner and “so withdrawn and fragile that even the other detention center detainees didn’t know what to say to her,” Eusanio said.
Last was molested and “almost raped” by two teenage boys at age 5, physically abused by a relative from ages 8 to 11 and sexually assaulted at 15, resulting in her pregnancy, Eusanio said.
The trauma had caused her to become submissive, the manifestation of which were symptoms of what Eusanio called complex post-traumatic stress disorder and “pathological” personality characteristics.
Sometimes confused with bipolar disorder, CPTSD involves prolonged trauma that often begins in childhood and is marked by extreme defensiveness, low self-esteem and “guarded, inhibited, ingratiating, a people-pleaser” and “unlikely to stand up for herself,” Eusanio said.
“To avoid abandonment, she will submit to intimidation and abuse,” Eusanio said.
The psychologist said the combination of her mind-set with the methadone she took and the marijuana she smoked the day of her questioning by police led to her failure to understand what she agreed to.
Hayden asked Eusanio if he agreed that Last had “failed miserably” in understanding that she could assert her right to remain silent and be represented by counsel — and Eusanio said yes.
“Lauryn thought the right to remain silent was that you shouldn’t speak until spoken to by the police,” Eusanio said.
“She clearly was not getting it.”
Troberg said he will question Eusanio at the Dec. 2 hearing and may call two police officers who took the statements from Last.
On rebuttal, Troberg also may seek further testimony from Miami psychologist Bruce Frumkin, who testified Oct. 25 that he did not give credence to the connection between complex post traumatic stress disorder and Last’s waiver of her Miranda rights.
Last’s trial was set for June 7 but has been postponed indefinitely until Williams rules on the admissibility of Last’s statements to police.
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Senior staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
