Valasca
Death, horror, torture
So, interesting factoid here, the psychologist Darcy Shores mentioned in this article is a friend of mine. That's how I found out about this case.
Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2013/08/28/2632167/moss-defense-to-begin-presenting.html#storylink=cpy
Sitting in a room at the Jones County courthouse, an Atlanta psychologist came face to face with a woman who called herself Caroline and said she had feared for her life but fell short of saying she killed a Henry County businessman.
Anthony Levitas testified Wednesday he sat down across the table from a woman resembling Pamela Moss earlier in the day and the woman facing him said “Pam was gone” and identified herself first as Carol and then as Caroline.
She said she “heard screaming” on the day of the killing and at one point she “was on the floor and there was a man standing over her with his hand on her arm.” He was holding something that looked like a curtain rod and “she felt threatened,” Levitas testified.
“She hit him. She didn’t know with what. ... She said she saw blood,” he said.
Moss, 55, is charged in the March 13, 2012, death of 67-year-old Doug Coker. Authorities found Coker’s body underneath the porch of her house in the River North subdivision, just across the Jones County line from north Macon on March 18, 2012.
Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled to begin Thursday morning. Jurors will then begin deliberating Moss’ fate.
Her lawyer has argued she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Levitas, the only witness for the defense, testified he diagnosed Moss with dissociative identity disorder this summer after a battery of tests.
Two other doctors previously had made the same diagnosis, he said.
One of the previous doctors examined Moss in 1996, the same year her mother was fatally poisoned. Moss pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in her mother’s death and served eight years in prison.
Levitas said dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder, typically manifests in people who experience a childhood trauma that causes their mind to split as a coping mechanism. He said Moss told him she was sexually abused at age 12 and she remembered being molested as an even younger child, but was unsure when.
Speaking with Caroline on Wednesday morning, Levitas said that she told him “her role was to help Pam” and that she had given Pam a list of things to buy at the store, including bleach and gloves.
Investigators found receipts at Moss’ house showing she bought the items at a Macon Kroger on the day after the killing. They viewed surveillance footage of her at the store and found the items at her house.
Asked whether it’s possible Moss could be faking a mental illness, Levitas said she appeared to be telling the truth.
“She’d have to be a very good actress,” he said.
Levitas said Moss’ voice changes and she has different mannerisms when another personality is in control. While he’s trained to notice those changes, he said Moss’ friends might be able to talk with her and not know they were talking with one of her alter egos.
He said he had talked with Moss on two prior occasions since July 2013 and had met the alternate personality named Carol, who is an adult woman. Judging from Caroline’s mannerisms, he estimates she is a late adolescent girl or young woman.
When questioned by the prosecution, Levitas admitted he was being paid $5,000 for his evaluation of Moss and time testifying.
Darcy Shores, a Central State Hospital psychologist, also testified Wednesday that she had evaluated Moss.
Shores said she didn’t have enough information to diagnose Moss as having multiple personalities, but said she saw evidence that Moss knows the difference between right and wrong.
She also said there is no evidence Moss was acting under a delusion when she killed Coker.
“According to her, she didn’t kill anybody,” Shores said.
Shores said a person who takes action to cover up a crime -- such as cleaning a house or hiding a body -- knows the difference between right and wrong.
Typically, someone suffering from delusions doesn’t flee from a crime scene or police after committing a crime, she said.
“They think they were right,” Shores said.
After examining records pertaining to Moss’ criminal case and hospital records from when she was admitted for a drug overdose days after the killing, Shores said she found no evidence Moss has had a problem associated with dissociative identity disorder since she stopped receiving treatment in 2003.
No problems have been reported since Moss has been held at the Jones County jail, she said.
Shores said she also took into account that Moss has a college degree in psychology and started a master’s degree in psychology. She also worked for a time at a psychology practice and administered IQ tests.
When asked if her alternate personalities were at her house on the day Coker was killed, Moss replied “nobody was there but her,” Shores said.
Moss waived her right to testify Wednesday morning. She also waived her right to be present during the trial for a second day in a row.
Cellphone records
Jones County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Earl Humphries testified Wednesday morning, explaining a log of calls to and from Moss’ cellphone on the day Coker was killed.
Moss made and received dozens of calls. She spoke with three business associates. She spoke with her boyfriend and arranged with a landscaper to have her grass mowed, Humphries said.
The calls started at 11:05 a.m. on March 13, 2012, when Coker called Moss. Authorities, after viewing surveillance footage of Coker at the McDonald’s on Bass Road in Macon, believe Coker was calling Moss to find out why she wasn’t at their pre-arranged meeting location. Coker and Moss had planned to meet at the fast food restaurant at 11 a.m., presumably so Coker could collect $85,000 Moss owed him.
At 11:09 a.m., Moss called the front gate at River North, Humphries said.
About 15 minutes later, Coker called Moss again.
Between 11:37 a.m. and noon, Moss called her sister, Carol Holland, three times. Holland testified Tuesday that she spoke with Coker on Moss’ phone during two of the calls. Moss had told her she was concerned Coker wasn’t “legit” and she wanted her sister’s opinion.
The line went dead during the second call, Holland said Tuesday.
“We believe during the second phone call is when Mr. Coker was attacked and struck with the hammer,” Humphries said Wednesday. A medical examiner testified Tuesday that Coker was struck in the head at least five times, causing his death.
Moss called Coker’s cellphone twice that afternoon, after he was already dead. The first call was at 12:54 p.m. and the second was at 4:28 p.m., Humphries said.
The phone log also documents Moss’ efforts to get a friend from church to pick her up at the Spalding County Hospital where she had driven Coker’s car and parked it, Humphries testified.
Coker’s cellphone records from the hours after his death show someone, presumably Moss, placed a call to one of Coker’s employees, Brian Bowles at 1:47 p.m., Humphries said.
Bowles testified Wednesday that he’d tried to call Coker multiple times that day, but never reached him.
When his phone rang and he saw Coker’s name on the caller ID, he answered.
“I just heard a little shuffling ... and then it hung up,” Bowles said.
Humphries said the phone records show Coker’s cellphone called his wife at 1:49 p.m. and 2:10 p.m. The first call lasted nine seconds and the second lasted a second.
At 2:16 p.m., the phone was used to call Coker’s voicemail.
Cellphone company records show Coker’s phone last “pinged” on a tower in Smarr, in Monroe County. The phone was never recovered.
Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2013/08/28/2632167/moss-defense-to-begin-presenting.html#storylink=cpy
