No Mental Treatment for Housekeeper Charged in Beating Deaths
A judge has refused a request to send housekeeper charged in the December beating deaths of two elderly women at an upscale Chatham County retirement community to a state mental hospital.
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Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens ruled against a defense motion for mental treatment for Barbara Turrentine Clark and a prosecution motion for a psychiatric exam.
Clark, 41, of Toomer Loop Road in Pittsboro, has been indicted on two counts of murder and one count each of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. The charges stem from a Dec. 5 attack on three elderly women at Galloway Ridge at Fearrington, off U.S. Highway 15/501 north of Pittsboro.
Authorities said Clark attacked Margaret Murta, 92, her roommate Mary Corcoran, 82, and their neighbor, Rebecca Fisher, 77, with pepper spray and a cane-like object during a dispute over money.
Murta and Corcoran died from their injuries. Fisher was seriously injured but recovered.
Chatham County District Attorney Jim Woodall wants a court hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to seek the death penalty in the case.
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