Rocky Mountain News April6, 2001 Jury sees grisly therapy tape

Candace's screams and desperate pleas knife through silence of Jeffco courtroom

By Peggy Lowe, News Staff Writer

A shrieking, terrified 10-year-old Candace Newmaker begged for air and pleaded with the therapists performing her "rebirthing" session, telling them "I'm going to die!"

They ridiculed her and told her to "Scream for your life!"

The 70-minute videotape of the North Carolina girl's fatal rebirthing therapy was played Thursday for a Jefferson County District Court jury as part of the criminal case against Evergreen therapists Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder.

Candace's screams shattered the courtroom, with the girl begging the therapists lying on top of her, "Please, please. I can't breathe! Please help me!" They responded by telling her to work harder, calling her "a quitter," telling her that she must die to be reborn.

"You mean like you want me to die for real?" Candace asks 16 minutes into the tape, her voice loud and panicked.

Ponder, lying on top of the girl, says, "Uh huh."

"Die right now and go to heaven?" Candace asks again.

"Go ahead and die right now," Ponder says.

"O.K., I'm dead,' " Candace says.

One female juror covered her face with her hands and wept. Other women wiped tears from their eyes. One ashen-faced male juror averted his eyes, staring into the near distance.

Wrapped tightly in a navy blue flannel sheet and lying under large sofa pillows, Candace told the four adults on top of her that she was dying 11 times. She pleaded 16 times for help and told them she was sick or vomiting seven times.

The girl, who kept urgently asking where she should "come out," ultimately kicked a 31-inch tear in the bottom of the sheet as Ponder kept the top tightly bound. Watkins joked with Ponder that Candace would be a "breech baby." Another time, they said Candace's rebirthing was such hard work that it was a "C-section," and they laughed.

Though the adults pressed against the child for 70 minutes, her last word -- a weak "No" -- was heard 40 minutes in.

All the while, Candace's adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker, stayed with the script she had been given by Watkins, saying things a woman giving birth might say. Newmaker, her back to the camera, said she was excited to have "a brand new baby," and hoped it would be a girl.

"I'm going to keep her very safe. She's going to be very close to me," Newmaker says. "Every day we'll be together and she'll be with me forever."

But the pregnant mother routine ends about 50 minutes into the tape, when Newmaker is told by Watkins to leave the room. Newmaker testified Wednesday that she was upstairs watching the session on a video monitor when she heard alarm in the therapists' voices as they unwrapped an unresponsive Candace after one hour, nine minutes and 53 seconds.

Running back into the room, Newmaker, a nurse practitioner at Duke University Hospital, is seen on the tape screaming, "Oh no! God, she's dead! Look at her! Candace! Candace!" She begins CPR on her daughter.

"She's dead! Look at her color! Call 911, somebody. She's dead. Connell! Oh my God. Candace."

Ponder starts doing chest compressions and Watkins, off camera, can be heard giving directions to the 911 operator. Newmaker is bent over Candace, giving her mouth-to-mouth. Ponder, nearly looking straight into the camera, silently mouths to Watkins, "There's no pulse."

Watkins can be seen tidying up the pillows. She walks into the camera and her green blouse fills the screen as the tape blinks off.

The video is at the heart of the Jefferson County District Attorney's case against Watkins, 54, and Ponder, 40, who are accused of child abuse resulting in death. Ponder and Watkins watched the tape with no visible emotion, conferring at times with their lawyers.

Newmaker, 47, from Durham, N.C., brought Candace to Evergreen because she said the girl suffered from attachment disorder. The problem is described as a child's inability to bond with her caretaker, and can be marked by violent behavior, depression and aggression toward the parents.

The rebirthing was aimed at healing birth trauma, Watkins has said, and the child is supposed to emerge from the sheet, or "womb." The adults pushed against the child to simulate birth contractions.

Before the rebirthing therapy, Candace is shown on the tape as upbeat, complying with the therapists' orders to draw a scene with a house, tree, snake, bird, river and sun. After she completes her picture, she's seen on the tape during a "strong sitting" exercise, where she sits cross-legged on the floor.

But as she's talking to Ponder, Candace said she was tired because she didn't sleep the night before. She had a nightmare and Ponder asks what it was about.

"Murder, again," Candace said.

Ponder reassures her, and says "this mom," Newmaker, is a good mom who cares about her. Then Ponder explains the rebirthing therapy and tells her to think about what it would be like in the womb.

"I thought I was gonna die," Candace tells Ponder, and adds that it might also be "sticky" in there.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), April 06, 2001