Ana Roybal

 

I was a bit surprised at how little I found on this story. If I had not found an appeal on this case with some good information I am unsure that I would have even sat down to compose this story and I find that odd considering the case and the things involved. There has been an episode of the show, “Twisted Sisters” that dealt with this case and while I cannot recall that may be where I first heard this story.

On August 25, 2001 a man named Erik Anderson and his wife were driving past The 720 Club, a place described as being used by “self help groups” such as AA and others, in Kerrville Texas when they saw two women in the parking lot having an argument. He had his wife stop the car, called 911 and went towards the women. As he did one of women, later to be determined to be Ana Roybal, threw a knife (not in his direction apparently) and took off running. Ana ran into the building with Erik Anderson chasing her. He finally caught up with her and detained her until the police would arrive. As he was doing so Ana was screaming and yelling something about her social security checks. At the time no one knew for sure what she was talking about.

In the parking lot would lay Mary Moon, Ana's sister. She had been stabbed at least four times and one of those stab wounds punctured her heart. She was taking to the hospital and died a few hours later there. And, while it seems that Ana was arrested on that day it was several days before she was officially charged with murder on September 6^th. She would plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

I found reports that stated that in 1986 Ana had given birth to a son she named Michael but that she had almost immediately abandoned him with what it said was HER grandparents but I cannot confirm this. It may have actually been her parents and Michael's grandparents but I cannot be sure. It was said that she eventually lost custody of him. In 1995 her died and Mary, who was married without children began taking care of Michael. I was unable to determine when or where Ana was throughout all of this time.

Apparently at some point she had come back. At the time of the murder it was said that Ana had accused Mary of stealing her social security checks, having sex with her ex-boyfriend and for “allowing men to sexually assault her seventeen year old son.” I found nothing to state that these allegations were true in anyway. That being said, I would be remiss if I also did not point out that I found nothing that said they were false either. In fact, I found nothing at all other than the allegations so I am uncertain how Ana had come to these conclusions. It was eluded to that these were basically ideas that she had conjured in her head.

Ana's trial began on August 5, 2002. Several witnesses testified that she had “a history of bizarre and erratic behavior for many years” leading up to the murder. Two expert witnesses testified that she was “psychotic and delusional” at the time of the murder. I did find something that stated that Ana “had been prescribed medication for schizophrenia and other mental conditions” but it was not specific whether this had been going on for years or only discovered/treated after her arrest.

I found very little about what the prosecution argued at trial but I can only assume that they argued she was not “insane.” That is not a difficult thing to do though and there have been many arguments over the years about the rule of court when it comes to insanity. I have said it many times here before but the long and short of it is that if the person knows the difference between right and wrong then they are not legally considered insane. This is called The M'Naghten Rule in which has been considered, with very few alterations or edits since the mid- 1800's. Many have argued that the law itself is antiquated and I am unsure that I can disagree. We obviously know so, so much more about mental illness today than we did in the 1800's and I think making this basically a black and white issue is not necessarily justice. The only case in which I can think off the top of my head in which was ever considered differently, and then only after a trial and a conviction, is the case of Andrea Yates who drowned her children.

The jury convicted Ana and she was sentenced to sixty years in prison. According to the Texas Department of Corrections website she is eligible for parole in September of 2031 but they have her projected date of parole listed as her maximum date which is in September of 2061.

I did find something else interesting on the Department of Corrections website. In 1997 Ana was sentenced to two years on charges of “injury to a child.” I found nothing else related to this so I cannot give details but I did find this interesting.

Obviously with such little information I cannot say for certain whether I believe the jury “got it right” or not and in those cases I always defer to the jury and believe that they did. I can only assume that they relied on the M'Naghten Rule in determining her guilt which is the legal way to do things but I question whether this is one of those cases in which I believe that rule to be inadequate to use. I say this because I do know people who suffer not just from mental illness but from schizophrenia in particular. I am not one who believes that mental illness is a reason or an excuse to “get away” with murder, but I do believe that in cases such as these things should be looked into more and considered at a different level. I want to know things about when she was diagnosed with mental illness; was she prescribed medication at the time of the murder, and was she taking it; just how severe was her mental illness and how far back had this been an issue.

As lay people we often say that for someone to commit murder they must be “crazy” and while on the surface that may sound legit, I think that too goes too far “the other way” from the M'Naghten Rule. I believe there must be some sort of happy medium somewhere that takes into account mental illness or at the very least addresses this and provides some sort of therapy if there is going to be incarceration. This is something we are hearing a lot about especially at local levels. Jails are being overcrowded as it is and many are filled with people who keep returning because they are not receiving the care they need when they are there. I suspect Ana falls into this category, but then again I could be wrong. Maybe she cannot be helped and maybe being kept away from the public is the best solution, at least at this time.