The trial of Rebecca "Becca" Pettit, 42, formerly of Roland, is expected to start Aug. 18 for the April 2000 death of Pettit's 6-year-old son, David "Adam" Andy Ray Pettit.
Sequoyah County Sheriff's deputies found Adam's decomposing body in Pettit's mobile home on the bed beside his mother, who had lacerations to her wrists and ankles. According to court records, the medical examiner determined that Adam died from asphyxiation.
Pettit was first convicted in March 2005 and sentenced to life in prison for her son's death, but that conviction was overturned in 2006 by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. She was remanded back to Sequoyah County for a new trial.
Kyle Waters, assistant district attorney, indicated Tuesday that he expects the trial to start Aug. 18, when the jury docket begins. A motions hearing was set Thursday.
Waters and first assistant John David Luton will try the case for the prosecution, while an Oklahoma Indigent Defense System attorney is representing Pettit.
Pettit represented herself during her first trial, which led to her conviction being overturned.
Pettit, who had once been declared indigent and was represented by court-appointed attorneys, lost her indigent status less than a year before the trial and ended up representing herself at trial. Prosecutors argued that Pettit's marital and financial state had changed since her son's death and that she could afford to hire her own attorney.
Throughout Pettit's 2005 trial, the prosecution conjectured that Pettit gave Adam cough syrup to make him fall asleep and then smothered him before she tried to overdose on antidepressants. The prosecution speculated that Pettit awoke to realize she wasn't dead, but her son was. At that point, Pettit allegedly tried to cut her wrists and ankles in another suicide attempt.
Pettit was formally sentenced in April 2005 to life in prison without the possibility of parole, which was the jury's recommendation. Pettit immediately appealed the conviction.
According to the appeals court opinion, Pettit, in her appeal, challenged the trial court's ruling that she was not indigent and contended that there was no record evidence that her self-representation at trial was voluntary.
The appeals court wrote that they would not presume that Pettit's appearance without an attorney at trial was voluntary.
Pettit is not the only Sequoyah County defendant set to face trial next month. Waters said two other cases, including a rape case and an attempted kidnapping case, will also be heard. A formal jury docket had not yet been prepared as of Tuesday.
