Otty Sanchez

Case identification

Otty Sanchez

The offence

Otty Sanchez dismembered her newborn baby and mutilated the infant’s body. Sanchez told authorities that the devil made her mutilate and dismember her newborn. During the killing, she screamed that “I didn't mean to do it! He told me to!” and later wailed that she thought everyone was dead.

Police and investigators described the scene as involving decapitation and extensive mutilation. Authorities said Sanchez ate parts of her son, including the brain, and medical examiners found apparent bite marks across the body. Investigators said she chewed off three of her infant’s toes. An autopsy report described mutilated genitals, the head nearly decapitated, the skin flayed, and other injuries. The infant’s body was found in a bedroom.

Sanchez also sustained self-inflicted injuries, including stab wounds to her chest and stomach and a partially slashed throat. She also reported that she stabbed herself in the stomach and neck and face during the 911 call.

Victim and family

Sanchez’s victim was her son, Scott Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez, who was three weeks old at the time authorities found his mutilated body.

Sanchez’s sister, Priscilla Garcia, made the 911 call after discovering Sanchez’s actions. Sanchez’s aunt, Gloria Sanchez, described Sanchez as having been “in and out” of a psychiatric ward.

Sanchez’s son’s father was Scott Buchholz. He said Sanchez only recently told him she was schizophrenic and said he wanted prosecutors to pursue the death penalty. During later accounts, he insisted Sanchez had postpartum depression and had told him she was schizophrenic a week before the slaying.

Sanchez’s relatives included her mother, Manuela Sanchez, and a relative who answered the phone at Buchholz’s home. Sanchez had been living with her relatives and her mother and cousins, including in the San Antonio area described in reporting.

Investigation and police response

San Antonio police arrived after receiving calls. Investigators described the scene as extremely gruesome. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said: “At this particular scene you could have heard a pin drop.” He added: “No one was speaking. It was about as somber as it could have been.” McManus said the crime scene was “It's too heinous for me to describe it any further.”

Police took a sword, a machete, and a kitchen knife from the home.

A police spokesman, Joe Rios, said Sanchez was taken to a local hospital in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds to her chest and stomach. Sgt. Wes McCourt said her wounds did not appear to be life threatening.

McCourt said Sanchez told investigators that the devil told her to kill her son. Police said Sanchez was screaming that she had killed her baby and that she was hearing voices. Authorities said she was sitting on the couch “screaming that she killed her baby,” and police identified the baby as Scott Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez.

A spokesperson for Metropolitan Methodist Hospital responded to reporting about admission decisions, stating: “Qualified mental health professional perform [sic] a psych assessment, focusing on three things: whether patient is suicidal, homicidal or experiencing a deterioration such that, if we let them out of the hospital, they would be a danger to themselves or somebody else. The qualified mental health professional then gives assessment recommendation to ER doctor and doctor makes his own assessment on whether patient needs to be admitted. Doctors [sic] recommendation always stands. Doctor bears liability for decision.”

Arrest, custody, and bond

Sanchez was arrested at her mother’s house where police found her and the dead infant. She was held in Bexar County Jail on $1 million bail.

At the time of some reporting, police said they did not know whether she had an attorney. Later reporting about courtroom proceedings said defense attorneys entered pleas on her behalf.

Trial

Sanchez was charged with capital murder in the death of her son.

Court proceedings included competency evaluations. Sanchez was found competent to stand trial.

Sanchez’s defense entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, and the plea was accepted as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Verbatim quote from the 911 call:

“I didn't mean to do it. He told me to!” “Otty, this time I told you to come to me,” Garcia says. “I tried, but you told me that you died,” Sanchez responds. “I'm not dead, Otty. I'm standing right here talking to you,” Garcia says. “My sister has has hurt her child has seriously hurt her child.” “The baby is dead! Please come quickly.” “Do not touch the baby. Don't disturb anything in the area there, okay?” “I stabbed myself in the stomach.” “I stabbed my neck and face.” “I didn't mean to do it. He told me to. Oh, hurry.”

Sentencing

Sanchez was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 30, 2010.

Her legal outcome meant she was sent to a state mental institution rather than being tried for capital murder and facing possible prison sentence.

County District Attorney Susan Reed stated: “She will be committed until the court decides she is not a danger to herself or anyone else.”

District Attorney Susan Reed also said: “This was probably one of the most horrendous cases that we have seen as far as the murder of a child.”

Appeals

No appeal outcome was described in the provided material.

Outcome

On June 30, 2010, Sanchez was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

After the insanity verdict, she was committed to a state mental institution and would receive yearly evaluation of her mental capacity by the court.

Other details

Sanchez periodically sought treatment for mental illness before her son was born and spent time in emergency and hospital settings. She was described as having postpartum psychosis and other diagnoses of psychosis, including paranoid schizophrenia in medical evaluations.

Defense attorney Ed Camara said Sanchez had been prescribed the antidepressant citalopram after giving birth but had taken it only the day before killing her son. Camara stated that the drugs do not take effect for a few weeks.

KENS 5 reporting about court documents described mental evaluations completed by three separate doctors who each evaluated Sanchez to determine her competency. The reporting named doctors Randall Sellers and Lucy Puryear as conducting interviews with Sanchez in the weeks following the death of Scott Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez.

KENS 5 reporting described Sanchez as having auditory and visual hallucinations and delusions. It reported that Dr. Puryear wrote: “It is my medical opinion that Ms. Otty Sanchez was incapable of telling the difference reality and her delusions.” It reported that Dr. Sellers wrote: “It is my opinion, based upon reasonable medical evidence that Ms. Sanchez had a severe mental illness, Paranoid Schizophrenia at the time of the alleged crime.”

KENS 5 reporting described a history that included using drugs for the first time in 2006, a trip to Austin to track down a former boyfriend named “Victor,” admission to Austin State Hospital, and later treatment at the Center for Healthcare Services in San Antonio. It described that Sanchez stopped taking psychotropic medication due to being unable to afford it, then became pregnant. During pregnancy, she was sent to a counselor for depression but did not want to go on medication. After the birth, the voices returned.

HuffingtonPost reporting included the following 911-call statements by dispatch and the caller, including “The baby is dead! The baby's dead. Please, somebody come,” and “Help is on the way.”

DailyMail reporting said Sanchez was treated for self-inflicted cuts to her torso and an attempt to slice her own throat. It said she was charged with capital murder and held at Bexar County Jail on $1 million bail.

Texas Observer reporting included additional background and contemporaneous claims about mental health care delays and outpatient arrangements, and it described Sanchez’s history of hearing voices since age 5, with voices described as “good voices telling her everything is going to be OK” and “bad voices” including one named “Lucy,” telling her to do bad things like eat my hand.

Texas Observer reporting also stated that Sanchez finished high school and began taking pharmacy-technician classes, and that she met Scott Buchholz at that time. It described an on-again, off-again relationship. It described erratic behavior, trouble staying employed, and work at fast-food restaurants and briefly as a home health caretaker.

Texas Observer reporting included that in late May 2008 Sanchez went to Austin with a friend and wandered into a CVS for seven hours. Police took her to Austin State Hospital, where she stayed for 16 days.

Texas Observer reporting described that after Sanchez’s release she received outpatient treatment at the Center for Health Care Services in San Antonio during the summer of 2008, including counseling sessions and anti-psychotic medication. It reported the Center later could no longer afford to provide Sanchez treatment, and Sanchez did not return for a next appointment.

Texas Observer reporting described that Sanchez gave birth to Scotty Buchholz on June 30, 2009 and stopped taking prescribed anti-psychotic medication on July 17, nine days before she attacked her baby. It described she attacked her baby after a fight with Buchholz.

Texas Observer reporting also described that on the afternoon of July 25, Sanchez visited Buchholz and Buchholz’s mother, Kathleen. It stated Sanchez refused to let Kathleen Buchholz hold the baby due to fears about stealing her son or breastfeeding. The reporting said Sanchez then fled the house, and Kathleen Buchholz called law enforcement and told officers Sanchez had run off with the child and was an unstable schizophrenic. It further stated that officers took no action.

Texas Observer reporting included a quote attributed to Scott Buchholz: “I think she should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. ... She killed my son. She should burn in hell.”

Fox News reporting about competency and the plea included: “Defense attorneys entered the plea on behalf of Otty Sanchez, 33, and it was accepted shortly thereafter as part of an agreement with prosecutors.”

Fox News reporting included that three-week-old Scott Wesley Buchholz-Sanchez was the victim and that Sanchez wailed “Sanchez periodically sought treatment for mental illness before her son was born and even spent a few hours in an emergency room after the birth because she was hearing voices less than a week before the attack.”

HuffingtonPost reporting included that Sanchez was hospitalized after the killing and was being held on $1 million bond at the Bexar County jail, and that her family member statements included “in and out of a psychiatric ward.”

DailyMail reporting attributed statements to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus: “Maybe we missed” warning signs. It also attributed McManus: “I don't know.”