Trial Revisits Grisly Night That a Mother, Baby Died

To almost everyone who knew him, Joseph Lynch was a devoted family man.

There were family picnics with his wife and three daughters, soccer games, PTA and Girl Scout meetings and vacations to places such as Acapulco. Everything seemed perfect.

But sometime in the fall of 1988 the family portrait began to crack. And on Jan. 17, 1989, it shattered in a horrifying night of violence at the family’s Santa Ana apartment.

Shortly after midnight Lynch called 911. “There’s been a terrible emergency at the Lynch home. . . . There’s been a murder,” he told the dispatcher in a stunned voice.

Then he set down the phone and as the minutes ticked by, the police dispatcher listened to thumping noises and screaming--sounds a prosecutor now claims were those of a baby being beaten to death.

After hearing about three weeks of testimony, Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno must now decide whether Lynch is guilty of bludgeoning to death his 33-year-old Australian-born wife, Helen, and his 14-month-old daughter, Natalie, with a champagne bottle. If Briseno finds him guilty, the issue in the next portion of the non-jury trial will be Lynch’s sanity.

Lynch, 44, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both murder counts. In police interviews that were admitted as evidence in the trial, Lynch admitted that he beat his wife to death but contended the baby was killed accidentally by falling out of her mother’s arm during the attack.

“There’s no explanation for what happened,” Deputy Public Defender Brian Ducker said in an interview. “Joe was an outstanding citizen. He loved his wife and he loved his baby. . . . He has no real memory of what happened. But he accepts that he did it. He knows it was his fault.”

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. James Cloninger contends that the slayings were the work of a cold-blooded killer who was sane enough to wash and hide the murder weapon. The prosecutor tried to show in court that Lynch killed his wife and youngest child because he had been having marital problems and had been unhappy about having a third child.

But Ducker argues that the night of violence was triggered by Lynch’s failure to take his medication prescribed for his manic-depressive condition--a problem that was diagnosed in 1986.

For the next two years, he exhibited no signs of violence or aggression, according to a psychiatrist who examined Lynch’s medical history and interviewed his family and friends. Lynch coached his 9-year-old daughter’s soccer team and served on the board of his Santa Ana condominium homeowner’s association.

The only unusual behavior was the slowing effect the medicine had on his reaction time and his ability to perform at his engineering job at Crossfield Electronics in Tustin.

Lynch’s former boss testified Monday that he had given Lynch a poor job review about six months before the slayings. Lynch told his boss that his medication was responsible for his poor performance and said he planned to stop taking the drugs.

Co-workers testified that at first Lynch appeared to be returning to his normal vibrant personality. But in the weeks and days before the murders, friends of the Lynch family said he began acting strange. He appeared to sometimes be anxious and at other times quiet and withdrawn.

Last week, Sharon Portman, Helen Lynch’s best friend, testified that Helen Lynch had grown unhappy in her marriage and feared her husband in the weeks before her death. Portman testified that Joseph Lynch’s behavior had become so worrisome that his wife urgently tried to contact his psychiatrist for help. She called the doctor five times on Jan. 16 before finally reaching him, Portman said.

The doctor scheduled an appointment for Joseph Lynch the next morning. But by then, Helen Lynch and the baby were dead. (The Lynches’ two other daughters, Holly 9, and Angela 5, were unharmed and now live with relatives in Scotland.)

While admitting he killed his wife, Lynch contended he did not mean to harm the baby.

During testimony last week, forensic pathologist Dr. Richard Fukumoto disputed the theory the baby died in a fall. He said it is possible the child’s injuries could have been caused by a fall, but the evidence suggests it is more probable that they were caused by an object striking the head.

Despite defense objections, Judge Briseno entered into evidence incriminating statements made by Lynch to police at the scene and later during a chilling tape-recorded interview with investigators at the police station.

Officer Donald Fox testified during the first day of Lynch’s trial that when he pushed open the door to the condominium that night, he found Lynch standing naked, laughing and gesturing toward his dead wife. Helen Lynch was found lying on her back, the baby nestled in one of her arms. Her head injuries, according to police at the scene, were so severe that they initially thought she was the victim of a shotgun blast.

Fox became so emotional as he testified about administering CPR to the baby at the scene, that Judge Briseno recessed the trial to allow the officer to compose himself.

“I just felt I’d beat her up a bit . . . for her own good . . . ‘cause I loved her,” Lynch told police investigators just hours after the killings.

After the judge hands down his verdict, the sanity phase of the trial will begin. To prove insanity, the defense must show that Lynch did not know the difference between right and wrong, nor did he understand the results of his actions that night.

If the judge determines Lynch was insane he would be sentenced to a prison institution for the criminally insane where he could be kept for life or until he is determined to be sane. If he is found to be sane, he faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Lynch, who did not testify during the trial, has been housed in protective custody at the Orange County Jail. Initially, he was under suicide watch. On Monday, an Orange County deputy marshal testified that one month after the slayings she observed Lynch standing in a cell, staring at a wall and not moving for almost eight hours. When she asked him if he was alright, she told the judge he responded: “Please kill me.”