Criminal minds - Mother vs Texas
- 7 years ago
Darlie Routier is an American woman from Texas who was convicted of murdering her 5-yr-old son, Damon. Her other son was also killed, though she was only tried for Damon's murder. Some say there is more to this trial than the official investigation showed. Darlie has no history of mental illness. She was not abusive to her sons. She was faithful to her husband and there is no fact from anyone saying differently on any of this. Darlie moved to Lubbock as a teenager with her mom and stepdad. She met Darin in a Western Sizzlin' where her mother worked and so did Darin as a cook. He was 17 and she was 15 and they married four years later. After moving to the Dallas area he began his own small company that tested electronic components and when he became a success in the early nineties, they bought a nice house and spent thousands getting it just how they wanted. Darin bought a thirty-foot cabin cruiser and a 1982 Jaguar. They went a little wild with their money and Darlie bought new boobs and flashy jewelry.
The neighbors never saw them as wild though. She had kids in and baked cookies for them. Those kids stood up for her against the accusation that she killed her sons. Darin and Darlie helped out a cancer patient neighbor with a mortgage payment and seemed to have a heart. Whose idea was that, I don’t know, but Darlie was baking the cookies.
All of a sudden their business went downhill and they got behind on their bills it is claimed. They owed $10,000 in back taxes and $12,000 on credit cards. Darin and an incomplete diary entry show Darlie was considering suicide a month before the murders. It was a fleeting thought apparently.
My doctor once asked me if I had ever thought about suicide and my answer was, "Hasn't everyone?" He laughed, for it is true. Maybe to different extents but if you know the world you have thought about it. If you have something you just think you can't face you may think about it, so I consider that pretty normal and nothing to even consider in anyone's sanity.
She had gone through the birth of a third baby and was trying to get off a little extra weight and at that age I think many of us go through a little something anyway. Like did we make the right decisions in life, have we chosen the right path? Thirty is coming up and to twenties that looks old! It is nothing serious but a little something as I say, and combined with all else going on with her she probably was suffering not abnormally from slight depression. That does not a murderer make.
Never brought to the attention of the jury were other things of alarm and great importance, including the pictures of Darlie's cuts and bruises on her arms taken when she was hospitalized the night of the murders. One juror told reporters he would never have voted to convict if he had seen the photographs. I would be sure others would have agreed. That is when I knew without a doubt! These are defense wounds, clearly. Yes, there were photos of the wound but this juror and the author who at first had Darlie guilty but changed her mind later said these really bad bruised photos were never seen by them. They did see the silly string plenty though which was an illegal entry into this trial!
"When they arrested Darlie, we just pretty much lost it," says Darin, and says they have never been able to grieve for their children but it is Darlie's husband and mother who have steadfastly continued the fight. They have appeared 10 times on nationally televised talk shows, printed up bumper stickers and have a toll-free phone number ( (888) 883-FAIR) appealing for donations and information that could help "find the real person who attacked Darlie and murdered her children." They have gathered support. Right now, they say, freeing Darlie is the only fight that counts.
Drake Routier looks just like his mother. The blue eyes, wide face, and his mother's mouth. The court took Darin's custody of the child, who was 7 months old at the time of the murders, simply because he defended Darlie! This is Texas law? His parents were allowed to raise the baby and he was given rights to visit him but still! Does this horror never end? If Darin is guilty of nothing how could they take custody of his child from him?
Darin and Darlie moved into her mother's home after the murders and lost the $200,000 house they built, also their 35-foot cabin cruiser, '86 Jaguar, plus some. Legal fees and bad publicity about the case ruined him financially. His electronics business, bringing a salary of $500,000 in 1995, lost 14 of its 17 clients and all its employees.
The neighbors never saw them as wild though. She had kids in and baked cookies for them. Those kids stood up for her against the accusation that she killed her sons. Darin and Darlie helped out a cancer patient neighbor with a mortgage payment and seemed to have a heart. Whose idea was that, I don’t know, but Darlie was baking the cookies.
All of a sudden their business went downhill and they got behind on their bills it is claimed. They owed $10,000 in back taxes and $12,000 on credit cards. Darin and an incomplete diary entry show Darlie was considering suicide a month before the murders. It was a fleeting thought apparently.
My doctor once asked me if I had ever thought about suicide and my answer was, "Hasn't everyone?" He laughed, for it is true. Maybe to different extents but if you know the world you have thought about it. If you have something you just think you can't face you may think about it, so I consider that pretty normal and nothing to even consider in anyone's sanity.
She had gone through the birth of a third baby and was trying to get off a little extra weight and at that age I think many of us go through a little something anyway. Like did we make the right decisions in life, have we chosen the right path? Thirty is coming up and to twenties that looks old! It is nothing serious but a little something as I say, and combined with all else going on with her she probably was suffering not abnormally from slight depression. That does not a murderer make.
Never brought to the attention of the jury were other things of alarm and great importance, including the pictures of Darlie's cuts and bruises on her arms taken when she was hospitalized the night of the murders. One juror told reporters he would never have voted to convict if he had seen the photographs. I would be sure others would have agreed. That is when I knew without a doubt! These are defense wounds, clearly. Yes, there were photos of the wound but this juror and the author who at first had Darlie guilty but changed her mind later said these really bad bruised photos were never seen by them. They did see the silly string plenty though which was an illegal entry into this trial!
"When they arrested Darlie, we just pretty much lost it," says Darin, and says they have never been able to grieve for their children but it is Darlie's husband and mother who have steadfastly continued the fight. They have appeared 10 times on nationally televised talk shows, printed up bumper stickers and have a toll-free phone number ( (888) 883-FAIR) appealing for donations and information that could help "find the real person who attacked Darlie and murdered her children." They have gathered support. Right now, they say, freeing Darlie is the only fight that counts.
Drake Routier looks just like his mother. The blue eyes, wide face, and his mother's mouth. The court took Darin's custody of the child, who was 7 months old at the time of the murders, simply because he defended Darlie! This is Texas law? His parents were allowed to raise the baby and he was given rights to visit him but still! Does this horror never end? If Darin is guilty of nothing how could they take custody of his child from him?
Darin and Darlie moved into her mother's home after the murders and lost the $200,000 house they built, also their 35-foot cabin cruiser, '86 Jaguar, plus some. Legal fees and bad publicity about the case ruined him financially. His electronics business, bringing a salary of $500,000 in 1995, lost 14 of its 17 clients and all its employees.