Susan Lee Hutson
She told Rachel she was crazy, that she would tell her dad about this when he got home, Rachel Hutson testified.
Then Hutson pulled the trigger.
Circuit Judge Marjorie Taylor Arrington on Tuesday sentenced Hutson to serve 18 years for first-degree murder and use of a firearm.
On Nov. 29, 2013, Hutson called her father and said she shot her mother inside their Indian River home, according to court documents. He thought she was joking and hung up. Hutson then texted him a photo of her mother's body.
She had been a caregiver for her 58-year-old mother, who had been ill for years and was dying, Donald Hutson testified. He said he never knew his daughter was suicidal, but in court, Rachel Hutson, 21, testified she felt depressed on and off for as long as she could remember.
She said she planned to kill herself that morning and that her mother's death was more of an afterthought. She thought her suicide would be too hard on her mom, and she didn't want her mom to discover her body, she said.
"I felt like I was just nothing, and nobody really needed us," Hutson said.
Sarah Hutson testified that her sister would sometimes have "fits of rage." She now believes Rachel had undiagnosed mental illness.
Rachel Hutson said her emotions used to feel like a "tornado." Now that she's taking at least four medications, her emotions feel more like a "whirlwind."
She asked the judge for mercy. She said she wanted a chance at life.
"I don't think I ever really had a chance," she said.
This poor kid didn't have a chance. I'm betting that dear old dad is somewhere on the spectrum from Narcissism to worse. It's his job to take care of his wife, not lay this at the feet of his daughter since she was a teenager. As the case progresses, I can just imagine the allegations of abuse (probably incest) which crawl out of the court documents. If the kid saying she "just wanted a chance at life" speaks volumes. I wouldn't be so quick to blame this on the young woman's so-called "mental illness" but more so on her being a member of a highly dysfunctional family system which failed to nurture her in a positive manner her whole life.
Before someone flames me, know that due to my being a survivor of a Narcissist/Borderline pairing household, I'm pretty good at reading the signs of abuse which is why I've represented people like this for the past 30 years in Florida. I have nothing to do with this case, but I have seen plenty of kids like this vilified by the media and system when it should be the system and society as a whole which should realize that if any interest had been taken in a family like this (someone will say that no one knew and there weren't any signs of problems - there are always signs), this whole scenario could have been avoided and perhaps this young woman could recover her soul and "have a chance at life" as opposed to most likely serving life (or worse in FL) for an act of desperation.