A 66-year-old lady is going through a homicide cost after investigators discovered her 97-year-old mom lifeless within the household’s Greenacres-area house on the morning after Christmas.
The Palm Seashore County Sheriff’s Workplace arrested Martha Jo Blake on a first-degree homicide cost after the Medical Examiner’s Workplace dominated that her mom’s accidents weren’t in step with a pure dying.
An post-mortem indicated Patricia Blake both was suffocated or strangled, based on her daughter’s arrest report.
Martha Jo Blake reportedly instructed investigators that her mom had expressed a need to die as a result of she suffered from varied diseases, together with Parkinson’s illness and a thyroid dysfunction.
Throughout a Dec. 27 listening to on the Palm Seashore County Jail, County Decide Lourdes Casanova ordered that Blake be held with out bail and granted the state’s movement for a pretrial detention listening to. If granted, such an order might hold her in custody till her trial begins.
The choose assigned a public defender to signify Blake. As a matter of coverage, the county Public Defender’s Workplace doesn’t touch upon energetic circumstances.
Deputies responded shortly earlier than 8 a.m. on Dec. 26 to the Blakes’ house within the Cresthaven Ashley neighborhood, close to John I. Leonard Excessive College and simply north of the Greenacres metropolis limits, to conduct a dying investigation, based on the arrest report.
Martha Jo Blake instructed investigators that she final noticed her mom alive the evening earlier than.
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As a result of Patricia Blake’s major care physician was unavailable, investigators referred the case to the medical expert’s workplace for an post-mortem. The physician assigned to it noticed that the elder Blake had a contemporary neck fracture, an inner hemorrhage on each side of her neck and a sign that one thing had been positioned over her face, the arrest report mentioned.
Martha Jo Blake voluntarily instructed investigators she had been her mom’s major caregiver for about 5 years. She mentioned her mom had expressed a need to die attributable to her well being points, and that she beforehand had mentioned a “Demise With Dignity” possibility along with her mom’s major care doctor in Maine.
The “Demise With Dignity” act is a type of assisted suicide that’s presently authorized in 12 states, together with Maine and the District of Columbia. It isn’t authorized in Florida.
Martha Jo Blake instructed investigators her mom was deemed ineligible for Maine’s Medical Assist In Dying program as a result of she didn’t need to a terminal sickness. She indicated she and mom had mentioned the choice of suicide by taking tablets, however decided they didn’t have any deadly sufficient to kill her.
Julius Whigham II is a legal justice and public security reporter for The Palm Seashore Put up. You possibly can attain him at [email protected] and observe him on X, the platform previously often known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Assist assist our work: Subscribe at the moment.
This text initially appeared on Palm Seashore Put up: Florida lady faces homicide cost in dying of 97-year-old mom