Rebecca "Becca" Pettit was booked back into the county jail Oct. 3, two and a half months after the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Pettit's 2005 murder conviction and remanded her back to Sequoyah County for a new trial.
According to court records filed Sept. 27 in Sequoyah County District Court in Sallisaw, Pettit will again face a charge of first-degree murder. Kyle Waters, Sequoyah County assistant district attorney, said Thursday that Pettit's case will be on the next jury docket.
Pettit was convicted in March 2005 of first-degree murder for the April 2000 death of her 6-year-old son, David "Adam" Andy Ray Pettit. Sequoyah County sheriff's deputies found Adam dead in Pettit's mobile home. His decomposing body was found 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.
In April 2005, Pettit was formally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, following the jury's recommendation. Pettit immediately appealed the conviction.
Pettit, who had once been deemed indigent and was represented by court-appointed attorneys, lost her indigent status less than a year before she was scheduled for trial and ended up representing herself throughout the trial.
According to the appeals court opinion, Pettit, in her appeal, challenged the trial court's ruling that she was not indigent for the purposes of court-appointed trial counsel and contended that there was no record evidence that her self-representation at trial was voluntary.
"An accused is guaranteed the choice of assistance of counsel or representing herself if she desires," according to the appeals court opinion. "If the defendant appears pro se, the record must show that she understands the gravity of that decision and the dangers of self-representation. We have held that without such a record, we will not presume a defendant's appearance without counsel at a critical stage of the proceedings was voluntary."
The appeals court found that a lack of a record of warnings from the trial court warranted a reversal.
Pettit was originally represented by the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System (OIDS), but after hearing arguments by prosecutors in July 2004, District Judge John Garrett ordered the court-appointed attorneys off the case since her marital and financial status changed. At the time of her son's death, Pettit was single.
Garrett said in the order that evidence was presented that the defendant posted a bond, moved to Tennessee, married John Duvall, and became employed, all after she was arrested for her son's death. Pettit was released on a $100,000 bond Dec. 21, 2000, while awaiting her trial.
"We recognize, of course, that appellant's appearance at trial without counsel is directly related to the trial court's dismissal of court-appointed counsel. Appellant claims that she was entitled to the services of court-appointed counsel, that she did not wish to represent herself at trial, and there is evidence in the record to support that claim. However, we need not address whether appellant was entitled to court-appointed counsel at the time of her trial because financial status is always subject to change and re-evaluation by the trial court," the appeals court opinion stated. "Because the record fails to show that appellant's appearance at trial pro se was voluntary, the case is reversed and remanded for a new trial."
During the trial, witnesses testified that years before Adam's death, Pettit threatened to kill her parents and herself. An ex-boyfriend also testified at trial that Pettit told him about a plan to smother both her sons after they fell asleep, drive them into the country, and use kerosene to burn herself and them in her vehicle. That alleged plan was thwarted because one of her sons would not fall asleep.
Throughout the trial, the prosecution theorized that the defendant gave Adam cough syrup to make him fall asleep and then smothered him before she tried to overdose on antidepressants. The prosecution conjectured that Pettit awoke to realize she wasn't dead, but her son was, and at that point, she allegedly tried to cut her wrists and ankles in another suicide attempt.
