Court finds woman not guilty by insanity in father’s death

Published 5:33 pm Monday, July 3, 2017

A Carter County woman charged with murder in connection with the 2016 death of her father was found not guilty by reason of insanity in Criminal Court on Monday.

Sonya Elaine Babb, 55, of the Powder Branch community, appeared in Carter County Criminal Court before Judge Stacy Street on Monday. She faced charges of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony in connection with the January 2016 death of her father, 77-year-old Kenneth Younce.

When Street called up Babb’s case, he said he had been informed some resolution had been reached in the case.

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“We’ve been able to reach an agreement with the District Attorney that Ms. Babb will be found not guilty by reason of insanity,” said Assistant Public Defender Melanie Sellers, who was appointed by the court to represent Babb. That agreement dealt with the murder charge. The charge of possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony was dismissed by the state, Sellers said.

Sellers said she and District Attorney General Tony Clark were jointly filing a Memorandum of Understanding and Stipulation of Facts in the case to put the details on the official record which supported the finding of not guilty by reason of insanity. A copy of Babb’s complete mental health records was also filed under seal in the case.

The Memorandum details some of the mental health treatment and diagnoses Babb received over the years. It also notes that following a deterioration in her mental condition, Babb’s family had attempted to get her help on the night before and the morning of the fatal shooting in January.

“No expert who has examined Sonya Babb has opined that she was able to appreciate the wrongfulness and nature of her conduct on January 27, 2016,” the Memorandum states.

Clark told the court he felt the verdict was the correct one based on the evidence in the case as well as the findings of several mental health professionals regarding Babb’s mental state at the time of Younce’s death.

“The mental health evaluation performed on Ms. Babb by the defense’s expert and also the state’s expert were in agreement that Ms. Babb’s mental condition did not allow her to understand the wrongfulness of her actions,” Clark said.

Clark noted in the six months prior to Younce’s death Babb was hospitalized for mental health issues on four separate occasions. If the case had gone to trial, Clark said the evidence would have shown the experts felt Babb did not understand what she had done.

“In my 23 years as a prosecutor, this is the first time the state has ever agreed on this,” Clark said regarding the finding of not guilty by reason of insanity. “If this is not fitting as these offenses and this case, then no one is.”

Street accepted the Memorandum of Understanding and ordered that Babb found not guilty of the charge of first-degree murder by reason of insanity.

“Gruesome as the charge is and as horrible as the facts in this case are, the court finds this is proper,” Street said.

Street also noted how hard the case has been on the family as they are family to both the victim and the defendant, saying he could not imagine what they have been through during the ordeal.

Following the verdict, Street noted that when a person is found not guilty by reason of insanity, they are not simply released from jail back into the community. The law requires a specific mental health evaluation be performed and then the court to hold a committal hearing based on that evaluation to determine if the defendant qualifies for “judicial hospitalization” and if so at what facility she will be committed.

“Ms. Babb, they are going to take you to yet another doctor to speak with,” Street explained. “It is important that you cooperate with them and your attorney.”

Babb will remain held at the Carter County Detention Center until the evaluation is completed and the committal hearing held. Street scheduled the committal hearing to take place on August 2.

The charges against Babb stem from an investigation into a reported shooting at the Younce family home on McKeehan Ridge Road on Jan. 27, 2016. When officers arrived at the home, witnesses said Babb had shot her father in the chest with a .40 caliber pistol.

Following Babb’s arrest, Carter County Sheriff Dexter Lunceford said Younce’s wife and another daughter were able to take the gun away from Babb and placed it under the porch until officers arrived.

According to police, during an interview with investigators, Babb admitted to shooting her father with his own gun. When asked why she had shot her father, Babb told investigators it was because he had killed her son. When officers explained her son was alive and well, Babb said her father had abused her.

During a preliminary hearing in the case, Babb’s sister Donna Ornduff testified about the events leading up to Younce’s death.

On January 26, 2016, Babb began having an episode of severe paranoia, Ornduff said.

“She was having a bad spell,” Ornduff said during the hearing. “She was real paranoid. She thought someone was going to shoot her.”

Babb was crying and upset, and her paranoia continued to grow that night, Ornduff said.

“As a last resort we took her to the Emergency Room,” Ornduff said.

While at the Sycamore Shoals Hospital Emergency Room, Ornduff said hospital staff brought a monitor to Babb and let her speak to a mental health professional by video conference, but no mental health care professional was at the hospital to physically evaluate her sister in person.

“We begged for help,” Ornduff said. “They gave us one pill and sent her home. Even though we were begging for help, they sent her home.”

In addition to giving the family a pill to have Babb take at home, Ornduff said staff told the family to contact Frontier Health, a mental health services provider, the following morning.

The next morning, Ornduff said her mother contacted Frontier health and was told it could take up to six weeks before they could assist Babb and directed her to call the Charlotte Taylor Center, which provides outpatient mental health services. Ornduff said her mother attempted to call the Charlotte Taylor Center, but no one answered the phone.

“If you want to point your finger at someone, point it at Mountain States Health Alliance, point it at Woodridge and point it at Frontier Health,” Ornduff said. “They wouldn’t give her the help she needed, and they wouldn’t listen to the family.”

Throughout the day on January 27, Babb’s condition began to deteriorate, Ornduff said, adding her sister began crying that her son Seth was dead and that her father Younce had killed him.

“She had it in her mind that he was dead,” Ornduff said, adding that Seth spoke to his mother on the phone and told her he was safe. “In her mental state it just wouldn’t sink in.”