In Rossland Supreme Court last Thursday, a social worker and two doctors described the difficult and depressing life of Kimberly Ruth Noyes leading up to the death of 12-year-old John David Fulton of Grand Forks, on Aug. 13, 2009.

Noyes pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge and is on trial, with the main question being – was she so mentally challenged that she cannot be held criminally responsible for her actions?

In the first four days of testimony, the court heard how Noyes was unable to function as a parent, could not work or pay her bills, had her utilities and telephone shut off, suffered from delusions, fought custody battles with her ex-husband, was admitted involuntarily to hospital five times and was a risk to herself and others.

Noyes, looking much older than her 43 years, sat looking straight ahead, her right arm holding up her head as she leaned on the edge of the prisoner’s docket.

Child protection worker Lenora Greaves said she had two encounters with Noyes before 2009.

First, she was contacted by Noyes’s former husband, in September 2007, expressing concerns about his wife’s discharge from Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail.

The second time was in the spring of 2008, when Noyes contacted the ministry herself, concerned about the safety of her children, citing her former husband’s temper.

But the ministry found nothing to be concerned about, Greaves said.

Up until June 2009, there had been no court order regarding custody of the couple’s two children. They had an oral agreement for joint custody. (An older daughter lives in the United States).

Greaves also described an incident that happened in April 2009 in which Noyes slapped and pushed her daughter down some steps. The ministry determined that Noyes’s children needed protection due to their mother’s mental health issues.

At the end of July 2009, a “safety plan” was developed for times when Noyes’s children would be staying with her.

The ministry bought Noyes a cell phone and outlined what should be done if she should feel a mental health episode coming on. She was to call her health clinician and it would be arranged for someone to pick up the kids.

“What were you concerned about?” Crown prosecutor Philip Seagram asked.

“The depression, neglect; she was feeling very low,” Greaves said.

“There was concern for the girl.”

The children were being shifted back and forth weekly between the two parents, but on Aug. 11, two days before the murder, it was Noyes’s turn to take the children but she didn’t want them.

Greaves went to her home.

“She only opened the door and looked out,” Greaves said. “She appeared to just wake up. She wasn’t engaging, gave one-word or non-verbal answers. Her face always appeared to be stressed.”

It was the last time Greaves saw Noyes.

Dr. Geoffrey Coleshill, a general practitioner, delivered Noyes’s son in December 2002 and shortly afterwards signed the first Form 4, forcing Noyes into hospital.

“The form sets out criteria of the Health Act in which a doctor can use an involuntary admission,” Coleshill told the court.

He went on to say that the Grand Forks hospital was given an anonymous tip that “a lady who just had a baby was going to kill her husband.”

There are three doctors in Grand Forks who deliver babies, and upon checking, it would seem the lady would be Noyes, he indicated.

Coleshill diagnosed her with post-partum mania, and in January 2003, after she’d had a psychiatric assessment at the Trail hospital, she was diagnosed with bipolar defective disorder.

In the years that followed, Coleshill didn’t see her much.

In August 2007, he completed another Form 4 when Noyes’s family raised concerns about her behaviour. He went to see her in her home and found her to be aggressive physically, and having delusional thoughts – moving mountains, her dead father arriving in a helicopter, and God telling her to save her husband and turn to religion.

Family and friends expressed concern about her children’s safety. Noyes told a neighbour she had the power of God “and if harm came to (the children) she could resurrect them,” Coleshill said.

When he called an ambulance to take Noyes to hospital, he also called for a police escort.

“I felt she could create a problem,” he said.

On March 12, 2009, he filled out the third Form 4 after receiving a call from the ministry.

She had not been taking her medication for some months, was shouting, moving constantly, couldn’t stop talking and was “in your face all the time – angry towards myself and other nursing staff.”

Coleshill referred Noyes to Dr. Richard Magee, one of three psychiatrists who eventually treated Noyes.

“The first meeting was Sept. 19, 2006 at the Grand Forks Mental Health Centre,” Magee told the court. “Initially, it was quite challenging to get her into the centre.”

Magee completed the fourth Form 4 certifying Noyes needed to be in hospital.

“It’s fairly difficult to get into a hospital these days, so it must be a fairly acute case – like suicidal,” Magee said.

In August 2007, he filled out another certification after noting that Noyes had increased irritability, couldn’t focus, and was talkative and making questionable decisions.

“Based on the period of depression, it is consistent with bipolar. She became flat, withdrawn, couldn’t function in the work situation, no interest in social activities, despondency . . .”

He didn’t see her for quite a while after that, but saw her three times in the spring of 2009. Noyes had been involved in a motor vehicle accident and her family was concerned about an individual she was with.

“She had been known to be a responsible parent so this was very uncharacteristic to what she was normally like,” Magee said.

After 10 days in hospital, she returned to a normal, “baseline” or maintenance level.

On July 24, 2009, Magee saw Noyes again, this time at her residence.

“She was in a fragile situation, irritable, problematic, flighty.”

He felt she may need hospitalization but didn’t think there was enough evidence to fill out a Form 4.

“She was certainly aggressive but as for delusional, I have nothing to hang a hat on.”

Magee went on to explain the roller-coaster ride from high to absolute low that individuals with bipolar can suffer.

“When in the manic state, they are on top of the world. They feel they don’t need anything. But there are a lot of problems in the community – we get phone calls.”

“This is an illness in which you have to take oral medications and it becomes very tough when they feel good and they wonder ‘why am I taking this?’”

Without medication, the manic phase unravels into the depression phase and with that, the biggest risk is suicide, he said.

“A patient has unusual beliefs about their body, the world; not sleeping, not eating, lack of self care . . .They don’t see a light at the end of a tunnel. They feel it will go on forever.”

Magee said compliance was always an issue as Noyes would take her medication for awhile and then stop. In the year before the murder, Magee guessed she had been off the medications for nine months.

Two others psychiatrists are expected to give testimony.

The trial continued today (Wednesday).