Mother Won't Face Death Penalty in Girls' Slayings

By DAVAN MAHARAJ and LESLIE BERKMAN

Oct. 17, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

LAGUNA NIGUEL — A Laguna Niguel homemaker accused of fatally shooting her two young daughters made her first court appearance Wednesday as prosecutors released a police report with chilling new details of the night of the killings.

“I’m crazy, I shot my daughters. They’re upstairs,” Kristine Marie Cushing, 39, told the first sheriff’s deputy to arrive at the house near midnight Sunday, according to court documents. The report said Cushing was bleeding from her head, apparently as a result of an unsuccessful suicide attempt when she turned a .38-caliber handgun on herself after killing her children.

Minutes later, sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of the children in the master bedroom--8-year-old Amy Elizabeth on the floor, and her 4-year-old sister, Stephanie Marie, on the bed in their nightclothes. Both had been shot in the head.

A .38-caliber pistol was found near the bed.

Cushing appeared disheveled and sat with her head bowed as prosecutors announced that they would not seek the death penalty against her.

Cushing’s attorneys said they were grateful for the prosecutor’s decision and revealed for the first time that their client had been under psychiatric care during the last year. Michael J. Cassidy, a Santa Ana attorney representing Cushing, declined to disclose the purpose of the psychiatric counseling his client had been undergoing.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys also declined to say whether any medication Cushing may have been taking could have affected her behavior.

After the hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. Robinson called the deaths of the two children and Cushing’s suicide attempt a “complete tragedy.” He said prosecutors discussed the case and concluded that “death would not be the appropriate remedy.”

Lt. Col. John P. Cushing Jr., the defendant’s husband, sat silently in court Wednesday as his wife was led into the prisoner’s holding dock, handcuffed, shackled and wearing jail-issue blue pants and a gray sweat shirt.

A commander of a Marine fighter squadron at El Toro, Lt. Col. Cushing wore a bandage on his left hand--the result of an injury he suffered while on an out-of-town fishing trip the weekend his children were killed.

Court documents revealed that the couple were in the midst of a divorce, and that Kristine Cushing had complained that she was under severe mental stress because of constant arguments with her husband and a debilitating heart condition.

Kristine Cushing entered the courtroom as her husband and relatives strained to catch their first glimpse of her since her arrest. Her husband sat near his wife’s sister and father during the proceeding.

The defendant’s collar-length, sandy-blond hair, tied in a ponytail, partially veiled her face. She showed little emotion, keeping her head bowed during the entire five-minute appearance. Kristine Cushing only spoke when Municipal Judge Arthur G. Koelle asked if she had agreed to continue her arraignment to Nov. 5. She responded with a barely audible “yes.”

Before the hearing, several relatives stood outside the court to talk to Kristine Cushing’s lawyers, John Barnett and his associate, Cassidy. The group included her father and mother, who arrived Monday from Florida, her sister and brother from Boston and another brother who lives in Lompoc.

All declined to comment on the case.

In addition to her relatives, several of Kristine Cushing’s friends showed up in court to support the woman they knew as a devoted mother who volunteered her time as a classroom mother, Brownie troop leader and Sunday school teacher.

The newly released sheriff’s investigative report details what happened after Cushing called 911 at 11:20 p.m. Sunday to report that she had shot her children and failed in an attempt to kill herself.

The report said that Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Anderson was the first to arrive at the house. As he peered through a side window, Cushing stepped out on the front porch and told him that she had just shot her two daughters.

Anderson said in the report that he handcuffed the woman, turned her over to another deputy and then ran into the house to check on the children. He found them upstairs.

Amy had no pulse and was not breathing, while Stephanie was also not breathing but had a slight pulse, Anderson said.

The deputy administered artificial resuscitation and was able to revive Stephanie’s breathing before paramedics arrived. The 4-year-old died a few hours later at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo. Amy died at the scene.

Anderson said that he answered the telephone when it rang while he was in the house. It was Kristine Cushing’s sister, Karen Cerretani, who was calling from Reading, Mass., to check on her.

“Cerretani told me (that) Mr. and Mrs. Cushing were involved in a divorce and that Mrs. Cushing was depressed and had called her about 9 p.m. today,” Anderson’s report said. “Cerretani felt Mrs. Cushing would try and hurt herself.”

Investigators said they interviewed the Cushings’ next-door neighbors who reported “that the only thing that was even slightly unusual at the residence in question occurred about 4:30 p.m. when Mrs. Cushing began yelling, as if to verbally discipline the children.”

When taken to Saddleback Memorial Hospital for treatment of a graze wound to the head, Kristine Cushing was asked by a nurse if she remembered what had happened, according to the report.

“I was depressed so I shot both my daughters,” she reportedly told the nurse. “I’ve been depressed for about three months.”

Times correspondent Len Hall contributed to this story.