Jason Hann

Case record: Jason Hann

Background

Jason Hann was convicted of killing his 2-month-old daughter, Montana, and also killed his 6-week-old son in Vermont. Hann was later serving a Vermont prison sentence of 27 to 30 years.

Krissy Lynn Werntz was the baby’s mother and was charged with murder. She was also living with Hann during the period when their children died.

Hann had severe bipolar disorder since early childhood, and he checked himself out of facilities against medical advice and refused to take medication. Defense attorney Brenda Miller told the jury that Hann had suffered from bipolar disorder and that he had endured mental health problems including anxiety, depression, agitation, and suicidal thoughts “all his life.” Miller also said that at 19 Hann was placed in a group home for people with psychological problems and that he was less-than-honorably discharged from the Navy.

The offence

Killing of Montana

Jason Hann became angry that his daughter Montana was crying while he was living in Desert Hot Springs in 2001. He struck Montana in the head with a closed fist, according to prosecutors. Investigators said Montana died while her parents lived in Desert Hot Springs, and her body was wrapped inside garbage bags and placed in a “blue Tupperware-type container.” Hann and Werntz then moved away and kept the body in a plastic container and in trailers and motorhomes as they traveled and did odd jobs.

The couple eventually arrived in Arkansas and left Montana’s body in a trailer at a storage facility. Authorities said they intended to return, but they missed rental payments and their property was sold. In February 2002, a man who bought the trailer found Montana’s decomposed body wrapped in plastic bags after the contents were going to be sold because the unit’s renter failed to pay the bill. Authorities said the buyer called police after finding the body, and then Hann and Werntz were tracked down in Portland, Maine, where they were arrested in April 2002.

Prosecutors said the decomposition was found in February 2002 in an Arkansas storage unit in a plastic container, and California prosecutors said Hann hit Montana to stop her from crying in Desert Hot Springs in Desert Hot Springs in 2001.

During questioning, Hann told investigators the girl found in Arkansas had died in Desert Hot Springs in 2001. Prosecutor Lisa DiMaria told jurors that Hann struck Montana in February 2001 with a closed fist in Desert Hot Springs, inflicting fatal skull fractures. DiMaria also told jurors that Montana’s lifeless body was placed in a Tupperware container, which was then put in the trash bag and kept inside a trailer for a year at a storage unit in Arkansas.

Prosecutors said Montana had been referred to as 2-month-old by the California case reporting, and the child was described as 2½ months old in one account.

Killing of the son in Vermont

Jason Hann had been serving a Vermont sentence for the 1999 murder of his 6-week-old son at a Shelburne, Vermont campground. Police in Burlington, Vt., said in 2002 they were asked to look for evidence from 1999 when the couple had been living in Vermont. Police said Hann admitted to knocking the boy’s head against a crib and that he died a few days later while staying at the campground.

Hann pleaded no contest in that case to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 27 to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Reference to a third infant

A third infant was seized from the couple when they were arrested in Portland, Maine, in 2002. The infant was about a month old and was described as having life-threatening injuries including “a dozen rib fractures and retinal hemorrhages.” The infant was later placed with foster parents and was eventually adopted.

Prosecutors said Hann’s third child, also named Jason, nearly died and was beaten at the age of four weeks. The prosecutor said the boy was later adopted and renamed.

Investigation and arrest

Police said that Hann and Werntz carried the dead bodies around with them in a plastic container for an extended period. Hann told police that he and Werntz carried the dead body around with them in a plastic container for 18 months, and Hann said he never reported the death for fear he and Werntz were wanted for a fraud charge in Tennessee. Police said the goal was to buy a piece of land and bury the child.

An all-points-bulletin found Hann and the children's mother, Krissy Lynn Werntz, in a Motel 6 in Portland, Maine, with a one-month-old son named Jason. Witness Jennifer Bloom, an employee of Maine’s Department of Human Services, testified that she and a colleague were sent to check on the new baby’s welfare, and Hann admitted to being involved with the deaths of his two other children. Bloom testified that Hann said: “He said he was responsible for both deaths. He didn't provide a lot of detail. He said, 'I fell and blacked out with the baby,'” and that Hann said he felt guilty about the deaths and felt he had to keep moving to evade police.

Police in Arizona found the boy’s body in April 2002 after Hann told them where to look. The body had been left in another trailer outside Lake Havasu City, Ariz. The day after the couple was arrested, police found the remains of another of the couple’s children in an Arizona storage unit.

Portland detective Todd Coons testified about what Hann told police after his arrest Monday. Todd Coons said:

“he told me that he had bouts of anger and that during one of these bouts he struck the infant child in the head with a closed fist in a backhand motion.”

Another quote from Hann was reported by police: Hann said he told Krissy the child died after he fell with her in his arms.

Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood said:

“I feel very strongly about it. These people should never see the light again after what they've done. They're history.”

After learning of what the Hanns had allegedly done, Chitwood said:

“He says they deserve no mercy.”

Trial

Vermont case (earlier conviction)

Hann was convicted in February 2006 in Vermont of second-degree murder for the death of his 6-week-old son and sentenced to 27 to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said. Hann had pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in that case.

In the Vermont case, police said Hann admitted to knocking the boy’s head against a crib and that the boy died a few days later while staying at the campground.

California case for Montana

Hann’s California murder trial began Monday in the 2001 killing of his daughter Montana. Hann pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge. Riverside County prosecutors pursued the death penalty by invoking the “special circumstance” of a previous murder conviction. If the jury found Hann guilty of first-degree murder with the special circumstance, the jury would then decide whether to impose the death sentence. The other option was life without possibility of parole.

A Riverside County jury convicted Hann by a jury on Tuesday of one count of first-degree murder and another of assault on a child resulting in death. Jurors found true the special circumstances allegation of a previous murder conviction, prompting the district attorney to seek the death penalty.

Defense attorney Brenda Miller argued that Hann’s severe bipolar disorder should be considered when the jury considered a second-degree murder charge. Miller compared Hann’s cycles of rage to a swing on a children’s playground and said:

“Just as his anxiety and his rage was reaching its peak, Montana began to cry, and her cries got louder and louder, and his rage just exploded,”

Miller also told the jury:

“Mental illness is no excuse” for what Hann did,

and she asked the jury to consider the lesser conviction, which carries a sentence of 15 years to life.

During the trial, Lisa DiMaria explained to the jury that the two boys would be referred to as “Jason One” and “Jason Two” during the course of the trial to differentiate between them, though the surviving boy also may be called by his adoptive name, Michael.

Sentencing

The Vermont sentence was imposed and Hann was serving it at the time of the California trial. The Vermont conviction resulted in a sentence of 27 to 30 years in prison.

In the California case, a Riverside County jury recommended the death sentence for Hann. The jury recommendation occurred after deliberating for just a few hours. The death-penalty recommendation followed two days after convicting Hann of first-degree murder and assault on a child resulting in death.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Hann was convicted in California of first-degree murder and assault on a child resulting in death. Jurors found true the special circumstances allegation of a previous murder conviction. The jury recommended the death sentence.

The earlier Vermont case resulted in a second-degree murder conviction and a 27 to 30 years prison sentence.

Other details

The couple had arrived in Vermont in 1998. Police said Werntz found work through Westaff and that the couple also worked at a bakery, Magic Hat Brewery, and Rhino Foods.

In one account, Werntz was described as “awaiting trial on one count of murder.” Another account said Werntz was also charged with murder and would be tried separately.

In one account, Hann told police he and Werntz carried the dead body around with them in a plastic container for 18 months and that they carried it for 9 months while moving across states in trailers and motorhomes.

In one account about the third infant, the boy’s injuries were described as “shaken baby syndrome,” with “blood clots on the brain and multiple skull, leg, and rib fractures.”

The accounts also described the boy as being found in a storage locker in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., and described an earlier incident in July 1999 in Vermont involving a baby referred to as “baby Jason,” whose head struck the back of a bassinet and who died about three days later, according to Hann’s account to police.

Hann was extradited to California from a prison cell in Vermont to be tried for Montana’s death, and it took four years for the death-penalty case to make its way through the system and into opening arguments. Testimony was expected to end next week, and almost all witnesses were being flown in from out of state due to the couple’s frequent relocations.

After the California case began, reporting indicated that prosecutors were seeking the death penalty, and the defense attorney said Montana’s cries triggered Hann’s extreme mood swings and rage.