ELLSWORTH, Maine — A head injury that Hilary Saenz suffered in a 2003 automobile accident is expected to be scrutinized in the trial of her husband, who is accused of beating her to death on Christmas Day 2013.
Ongoing issues from the injury may have been a factor in why Hilary Saenz died a little over a year ago in the Central Street apartment that she shared with Christopher Saenz and their two children, according to Saenz’s defense attorneys.
Saenz, 31, has been charged with murder in connection with Hilary Saenz’s death in Ellsworth on Dec. 25, 2013. The trial is expected to get underway in Hancock County in early February, according to court documents and attorneys involved in the case.
Police allege that Christopher Saenz had a history of abusing his wife and accused him of beating her to death. In the medical examiner’s report of the causes of Hilary Saenz’s death, investigators wrote that she died as a result of blunt force trauma to her head and torso, according to Maine State Police.
In documents filed in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court in Ellsworth, Christopher Saenz’s defense attorneys wrote that a “traumatic head injury” that Hilary Saenz suffered in a 2003 car crash left her in a coma for “several days.”
Ellsworth attorneys Jeff Toothaker and Robert Van Horn wrote that their client Christopher Saenz denied to police that he struck his wife in the head or torso on the day that she died. Saenz told police that his wife collapsed suddenly and appeared to have a seizure immediately before her death, they indicated.
In the weeks before Hilary Saenz died, Christopher Saenz’s attorneys added in the court document, she told several co-workers that “she believed she was experiencing short-term memory loss as a result of the 2003 crash and she thought her symptoms were getting worse.” At the time of her death, Hilary Saenz was employed as a clerk at the local Walmart and as a nursing assistant at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Christopher Saenz’s attorneys included the information about Hilary Saenz’s head injury in a motion to obtain copies of her medical records from the state medical examiner’s office and from attorney Matt Foster. Foster, who was elected in November as the new district attorney for Hancock and Washington counties, represented Hilary Saenz in a civil suit that she filed over the 2003 car accident, according to Toothaker and Van Horn.
The defense attorneys’ motion to be provided with copies of Saenz’s medical records has been granted by a Superior Court judge.
Attempts Wednesday to find out more information on the 2003 auto accident that injured Saenz were unsuccessful.
Toothaker indicated Tuesday that he and Van Horn expect the case to be tried by a judge, rather than by a jury, but that it will be up to Christopher Saenz to decide whether to request a jury-waived proceeding. He said Hilary Saenz’s 2003 injuries will be “one of the major points” considered in her death during the trial.
In a brief emailed comment on Wednesday, spokesman Timothy Feeley of the Maine attorney general’s office indicated that prosecutors still plan to pursue the murder charge filed against Christopher Saenz, despite the expected defense argument over Hilary Saenz’s 2003 injuries.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 866-834-4357, TRS 800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.
