Water-death verdict appealed

A Utah County woman convicted of fatally force-feeding her adopted 4-year-old daughter water will ask the Utah Supreme Court next week to set aside her sentence, claiming the jury should have given her consideration that as a parent, she knew what was best for her child.

The Utah Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments next Tuesday in the appeal of Jennete Killpack, who along with her husband, Richard Killpack, were charged in the death of their adopted African-American daughter, Cassandra, on June 9, 2002.

In October 2005 a jury found Jennete Killpack guilty of child abuse homicide and acquitted Richard Killpack. During the trial, the prosecution painted the Killpacks' household as one where Cassandra was treated as a lesser child to the Killpacks' own biological daughter. The Killpacks claimed their adopted daughter was severely troubled and were taking her to a controversial therapy clinic called the Cascade Center for Family Growth, which is now closed.

Both parents claimed that as a form of punishment, a Cascade therapist told them to make Cassandra drink large amounts of water for stealing their other daughter's drink.

Prosecutors said Jennete Killpack put the girl on a bar stool, tied her hands behind her back and forced her to drink about a gallon of water. Paramedics arrived to find the girl on the floor unconscious with a swollen belly and pink foam spilling from her mouth. Doctors and medical personnel testified that water was seeping from every orifice on the girl and that they couldn't get enough towels to soak up the pink foam coming from her mouth. She later died at Primary Children's Medical Center. One doctor testified she was disturbed when she spoke with the Killpacks about their daughter's condition and they focused on telling her what a horrible child Cassandra was.

Doctors concluded that Cassandra died of a condition known as "water intoxication" where a person has so much water in their system that their blood salts are too diluted and their brain swells. The bizarre nature of the girl's death garnered nationwide attention.

In her appeal, Killpack argues that the jury was not properly instructed on the elements of child abuse homicide and that the jury should have been told that under Utah law "a parent has a fundamental liberty interest in the care, custody and management of their children and that child abuse does not include injury that results from a parent's reasonable choices made in providing the care, custody and management of their children as viewed from the parent's standpoint," Killpack's brief states.