Massachusetts SJC orders new trial in mother’s Voodoo killing case with ties to Clancy case judge
Latarsha Sanders was convicted in 2022 but will now get a new trial
BOSTON —
Massachusetts’ top court on Thursday ordered a new trial for a mother who was convicted of killing her two young boys. Her case was tried in 2022 before the same judge who is currently overseeing the trial of Lindsay Clancy, who is accused of murdering her three children.
After a nine-day trial, a jury found Latarsha Sanders guilty in December 2022 of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2018 deaths of her sons Edson Brito, 8, and La’Son Brito, 5. She was sentenced to mandatory life terms without the possibility of parole on both counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her two sons.
Sanders told police in 2018 that she attacked her son Edson with a kitchen knife as part of a Voodoo ritual but failed, so she attacked her 5-year-old son, according to the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said autopsies found that Edson had been stabbed nearly 80 times and La’Son had been stabbed more than 20 times.
Citing problems with the trial, the Supreme Judicial Court vacated the conviction, set the verdicts aside and sent the case to the Superior Court for a new trial.
Video below: Mother sentenced for stabbing deaths of 2 children
Why a new trial was ordered
On appeal, Sanders argued that the judge prevented her ability to fully present a case about her mental health. According to the SJC’s summary, the appeal argued that the judge excluded certain medical records about post-arrest diagnoses and treatment of mental illness.
“There is no doubt the defendant committed these incomprehensible crimes. The sole issue before a Superior Court jury was whether she lacked criminal responsibility,” the Supreme Judicial Court wrote in Thursday’s order.
Because the relevant medical records were excluded, the Supreme Judicial Court determined the trial suffered from a “prejudicial error.”
“As a result, the defendant is entitled to a new trial,” the SJC wrote.
Additionally, the SJC found that Sanders was right to challenge the prosecutor’s claim that the television program “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” was on a bedroom TV when the bodies were found and the suggestion that the defendant concocted her story using elements from episodes of the program.
“No testimony or reasonable inferences drawn from testimony established a connection between the television program that happened to be playing during the police investigation and the earlier murders,” the SJC wrote.
Same judge as in Clancy trial
Sanders’ criminal case was held in Judge William Sullivan’s courtroom in Plymouth Superior Court. Sullivan is currently overseeing the trial of Lindsay Clancy, which involves similar themes.
Clancy is accused of strangling her three children, and her defense plans to argue that she is not criminally responsible because of her mental health, namely that she was suffering postpartum psychosis.