Mom arraigned on aggravated murder charge

Amanda Jo Stott-Smith picked up her two children for her weekend parenting visit Friday night, then drove to Portland.

Once there, according to authorities and court records, she forced her two young children off the Sellwood Bridge in an apparent act of revenge against her estranged husband.

More

» Nasty fight over custody preceded Sellwood Bridge tragedy

» State plans home safety study for Sellwood Bridge fall survivor

» Live blog: Arraignment for Amanda Jo Stott-Smith (May 26)

» Custody fight preceded case of children found in the Willamette (May 26)

»

Moans led boater to kids who went off Sellwood Bridge

(May 24)

» Girl who survived fall into river came from troubled family (May 24)

» Woman, 31, arrested after one child drowns, one rescued from Willamette (May 23)

The couple had been in a nasty custody battle over their daughter, 7, and son, 4, since separating last fall -- a dispute that involved attorneys, police, and courts and led to the children getting bounced between three homes in three months.

On April 21, a Washington County judge ordered that the two children live with their father, Jason F. Smith, 33, in Eugene. Stott-Smith was given visiting rights every other weekend, but was sternly ordered not to visit the Eugene home without notice or permission.

It was the second time Stott-Smith had lost custody of a child -- in February, a judge had ordered that her oldest son, now 12, by a different dad stay in the sole custody of the father.

Stott-Smith, 31, watched by two sheriff's deputies, made her first appearance in Multnomah County Circuit Court Tuesday afternoon, arraigned on charges of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder in the drowning death of her son, Eldon Jay Rebhan Smith, and the attempted killing of her daughter. The Oregonian is not naming the girl because she's a juvenile victim.

Defense attorney Jim McIntyre, appearing on the mother's behalf, said it's likely the case will center on whether Stott-Smith is able to "aid and assist" in her own defense.She's due back in court June 3.

At the same hour in a Washington County courtroom, a judge ruled that the couple's daughter be placed in state custody.

Stott-Smith, 31, was arrested at 10:25 a.m. Saturday in a Portland parking garage. She's accused of pushing or throwing her two children over the Sellwood Bridge, sending them about 75 feet into the dark and cold Willamette River about 1:20 that morning.

Sometime early Saturday, Jason Smith had called Tualatin police after having had a phone conversation with his estranged wife. He was concerned about the children and their mother based on that phone call, Tualatin Police Capt. Brad King said.King declined to say the time Jason Smith called Tualatin police, other than saying, "Everything was happening about the same time."

Residents of a floating home community nearby heard water splash, and screaming and called 9-1-1. Resident David Haag went out in his boat with his companion and found the girl and boy north of the bridge. He first spotted the girl gasping for air, her head and leg out of the water. She tried to grab for him, and he dived in to rescue her.

Not until his companion on the boat yelled, "There's another one!" did Haag notice the boy.

"We speculated that she had ahold of her brother because they were so close, right next to each other in the water," Haag said Tuesday. The boy was dead.

The girl remains at Oregon Health & Science University's Doernbecher Children's Hospital.

"Jason has been with her around the clock. She's doing awesome, and that's probably what's keeping him going, because he is absolutely crushed by the loss of his son," said Jason Smith's attorney, Laura Schantz, on Tuesday.

Washington County papers outline the custody battle over the children. Since February, they had lived in Tualatin, Eugene and Clackamas.

According to court papers, Jason and Amanda Jo were married in Hawaii April 29, 2001. They lived in Tualatin before separating in September 2008. Jason Smith left their Tualatin home last September, and the children remained with their mother until around Feb. 10, according to court papers. The mother's account said Jason Smith and his mother took the children from her home to Eugene to stay with them.

On March 20, Stott-Smith filed a petition for legal separation. She also asked the court for an order to get her children back, noting that she never gave their father permission to move the children and she had not been allowed to see them.

In court papers, she described herself as a stay-at-home mother, who had walked her daughter to and from Byrom Elementary School in Tualatin every day, and took her 4-year-old son to Living Savior Lutheran Church and Preschool from 9 until 11:30 a.m. each weekday.

She wrote that she fed Eldon lunch and played with him in the afternoons until she picked up his older sister from school and often took them to the library. "I cared for the children 24 hours a day," she wrote.

On March 23, three days after Stott-Smith filed for legal separation and argued for the return of her children, a Washington County judge issued what's commonly referred to as a "status quo order." The ruling, made without input from the father, ordered that the children remain in their "usual place of residence" until custody is determined.

On April 6, with that court order in hand, the children's mother, along with her sister and Eugene police, took the 7-year-old girl out of Eugene's Meadowlark Elementary School. The 7-year-old girl was removed from class and left the school grounds with only her coat and backpack, according to a school employee's account in court records.

On April 8, the couple's daughter attended one day of first grade at Concord Elementary School in Clackamas County. According to court papers, Stott-Smith said she was homeless and living with her parents, and told a Concorde school employee that the girl's enrollment was to be kept secret because she didn't want the girl's father to know.

Meanwhile, Jason Smith obtained a lawyer to petition to return the children to Eugene.

Schantz, the father's lawyer, argues that Stott-Smith obtained that April court order under false pretenses. Schantz said Amanda Jo Stott-Smith had agreed with Jason Smith before he took the children to Eugene that their children would live with him, although that was never written down.

Once their mother took the children out of Eugene, the father's lawyer said she prepared to take the mother to court and point out those "inaccuracies" in the mother's argument, but a settlement was reached, Schantz said.

The mother's attorney, Michelle van Grunsven, declined comment Tuesday.

On April 21, a judge ordered the two children returned to their dad in Eugene. Stott-Smith was given parenting time every other weekend, starting at 7 p.m. on Fridays until 5 p.m. Sundays, with the right to call her children every night. It was to be a temporary order until the legal separation wound it's way through court.

"It is in the best interests of the children that their current school schedule not be disturbed at this time," the judge wrote.

Tuesday, in Eugene's Norkenzie neighborhood, residents said they often saw the children playing at the home of the paternal grandparents, Christine and Richard Duncan.

"They were two of the most beautiful children I've ever seen," said Linda Baker, who lives next door to the Duncans. "Polite, bubbly, sparkly - just happy, happy children." The Duncans appeared to be helping Jason Smith care for the children, Baker said. The children were at the grandparents' home quite often, sometimes daily.

At Jason Smith's apartment about a mile away, a neighbor said he'd met Smith briefly after moving in a few weeks ago. The neighbors said he saw the children playing outside the apartment recently, perhaps on Friday, but otherwise saw or heard nothing unusual.

The April 21 order did mention the possibility that Stott-Smith's time with her children could be extended in the future. If the temporary order remained in effect through the summer, the judge suggested the parents enter into mediation and arrange "extended summer parenting time" for the mom. If Stott-Smith were to move to Eugene, the judge wrote, Stott-Smith could also have mid-week visits with her children, and/or provide after-school care for them.

Denice Hornberger, the director of the Living Savior Lutheran Church and Preschool in Tualatin where Eldon Smith attended from September through February, said, "We're just heartbroken about the whole business."

At his mother's arraignment Tuesday, Stott-Smith wore a blank expression, and was barely audible when the judge asked if she understood the accusations. A woman in court who identified herself as a friend of Stott-Smith said afterward, "The most important thing right now is just to mourn for those children."

-- Maxine Bernstein; maxinebernstein@news.oregonian.com

-- Noelle Crombie; noellecrombie@news.oregonian.com

-- Eric Mortenson; ericmortenson@news.oregonian.com



-- Steve Mayes, Molly Hottle and Phillip Swarts contributed to this report