Teenage Daughter Uses Frying Pan to Murder Mother Over Bad Grades | Sydney Powell Case Analysis

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Sydney Powell just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the crime then offer my analysis Sydney Nicole Powell was born on March 21 2000 and lived in Akron Ohio her father's name was Stephen and her mother's name was Brenda the family lived in a house on the 1900 block of Scudder Avenue in 2018 Sydney graduated from high school she enrolled at the University of Mount Union in Alliance Ohio this is about 50 minutes southeast of the Powell family house she was studying psychology at the University in December of 2019 Sydney was suspended from College due to poor academic performance she had failed three of her four classes in the fall semester Sydney did not appear to be enthusiastic about her Newfound status as a resident in the land of the suspended she returned to the college for the spring semester of 2020 as if nothing had happened and even attended sorority meetings University employees explained to Sydney that she needed to move out of the dormitory and that her access key card was deactivated Sydney only moved out of the dormitory after meeting with employees for the third time on February 24. instead of returning to the family house in Akron Sydney stayed in hotels and used cash to pay it appeared as though she was trying to keep her suspension from college a secret now moving to the timeline of the crime on March 3 2020 Sydney and her father Stephen were at the family house in the morning Stephen had discovered Sydney's suspension and talked to her about it he contacted his wife Brenda and asked her if she could continue the discussion with Sydney Steven left for work before Brenda arrived home at 11 49 am Brenda called the University of Mount Union to discuss the suspension of her daughter she received a call back from two employees at 12 36 pm within a few seconds as Brenda was on the phone with the employees 19 year old Sydney beat her 50 year old mother they cast iron skillet she then retrieved a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Brenda at least 23 times most of the injuries Brenda sustained were on her neck and head University employees were still on the phone they could hear that something violent was occurring to them it sounded like a physical attack they heard a commotion yelling and screaming then a thud like sound after this they heard more screaming and additional thud-like sounds after the call was disconnected the employees called Brenda back twice but no one answered on their third attempt at 12 40 PM Sydney answered the phone and pretended to be your mother the college employees notified the police when the police arrived at the Powell family house they found that Brenda was mortally wounded she was transported to a local hospital where she died of her injuries Sydney was covered in blood and was behaving in a manner described as hysterical she was clawing on the ground outside the house Sydney claimed that she and her mother were in the house when there was a noise her mother told her to run which she did after this Sydney heard screaming when she went back in the house her mother was on the floor the police discovered that a back window in the house was broken from the outside it didn't take long for the police to conclude there was no Intruder and that Sydney Powell was the one who killed her mother she was arrested and charged with murder her defense attorneys did not deny that their client was the killer but argued that Sydney Was Not Guilty by reason of insanity Cindy went to trial in September of 2023. three mental health clinicians hired by the defense testified that Sydney was psychotic at the time of the killing and did not understand the wrongfulness of her actions the first clinician believed that Sydney had schizophrenia and major depressive disorder Sydney lost her grip on reality in the months leading up to the attack during the attack she was in the middle of a psychotic episode the second clinician argued that Sydney had schizoaffective disorder this clinician indicated that malingering was ruled out the third clinician largely agreed with the first two about the psychosis this clinician stated that Sydney had become increasingly paranoid and may have had dissociation a clinician hired by the state believed that Sydney had an unspecified anxiety disorder and borderline personality traits there was no schizophrenia and there was no psychotic episode the clinician believed that Sydney was malingering on September 20 2023 Sydney Powell was found guilty of murder felonious assault and tampering with evidence on September 28 she was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison now moving to my analysis the defense attorneys for Sydney Powell believed that she was psychotic and not guilty by reason of insanity the state of course disagreed they argued that Sydney was malingering and was responsible for the murder this brings me to the question was Sydney Powell guilty of murder let's take a look at the evidence both for and against the idea that she was guilty starting with the inculpatory factors before a person develops schizophrenia they often have several prodromal symptoms that follow a fairly distinct pattern this pattern was not evident in Sydney's case Sydney told mental health professionals that she started experiencing auditory hallucinations as young as the age of 11. This is highly unusual and difficult to believe it is not uncommon for people to develop psychosis in their late teens or early 20s but it's unusual for a psychotic break to occur any earlier Sydney did have a history of anxiety but people who knew her did not observe any mental health issues that were alarming for example her High School teachers never contacted her parents about mental health problems a college roommate described Sydney as charismatic and social she did not see anything out of the ordinary with Sydney's Behavior when Sydney was suspended she told her roommate that she was going to take a break from school to figure things out just a few days before the attack Sydney lied to her mother and reassured her that everything was fine Sydney was aware for months that she had been suspended yet she continued to pretend like everything was fine if Sydney wasn't a delusional State and truly didn't understand that she had been suspended why did she lie to people about what happened also during this time when Sydney was supposed to be slipping into psychosis she was highly functional she was completing the daily activities of life without any problems investigators found that Sydney had searched some Curious terms on the internet including how to kill someone and how long does it take to bleed out during the morning on the day of the killing Sydney's father talked to his daughter there was no evidence that she was psychotic Brenda arrived home at 11 49 a.m but the attack did not take place until she was on the phone with the University at 12 36 pm if Sydney was really psychotic why didn't Brenda notice that something was wrong the attack occurred right as Brenda was going to receive details about the suspension from the University out of all the times that Sydney could have attacked she just happened to attack when she had a motive to do so namely to hide her failure from her mother Sydney used two different weapons during the attack she appeared to act intentionally to end her mother's life this level of organization is inconsistent with someone in a delusional State although not unheard of after the attack when the college employees called back Cindy answered the phone and pretended that she was her mother a psychotic episode rarely resolves this quickly Sydney went from being relatively normal to homicidal and then to deceptive in the course of four minutes Cindy went outside and broke a window in the back of the house to support her story about an intruder she did this to avoid taking responsibility for the homicide delusional offenders often do not focus on escaping responsibility with such tenacity and precision one mental health clinician testified that Sydney was malingering and that she did not suffer from schizophrenia or psychosis moving to the exculpatory factors Sydney had a history of anxiety people who developed schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder often develop anxiety prior to their first psychotic break prior to the killing Sydney had been isolating herself in college this is also a symptom that can occur before a psychotic break there wasn't really any motive for Sydney to commit homicide she had nothing to gain from attacking her mother it's clear that the suspension from college was no longer a secret when the lethal attack occurred Sydney had no history of violent behavior and had a close bond with her mother three mental health clinicians testified that Sydney had either schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and did not understand the difference between right and wrong when she killed her mother when considering all the evidence in this case do I think that Sydney Powell was guilty of murder yes I believe she was guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt the schizophrenia argument does not make a lot of sense in this case it is very unusual for a person with schizophrenia to be able to hide the onset of the illness from everyone around them what do I think happen in this case this is just a theory my opinion Sydney was accustomed to getting everything she desired when she went to college she wanted to enjoy social activities but had no commitment to the academic side when she was suspended Sydney thought that she could simply continue to enjoy herself and the problem would go away she wanted everyone else to suspend disbelief and engage in the fantasy with her by March 3 2020 Sydney had suffered a string of defeats she had to move out of the dormitory she had to stop going to classes she was cut off from social activities her father found out about the suspension and then her mother found out Sydney could no longer process the amount of Shame she was experiencing she surrendered to impulsivity and beat and stabbed her mother to death in a moment of rage in a sense Sydney was trying to kill her own shame her mother became a substitute for Sydney's failures right away Sydney realized that life in prison would be incompatible with her desire for enjoyment she attempted to escape responsibility by making up a story about an intruder when this failed Sydney pretended that she had been suffering from hallucinations and delusions Sydney was not a good student and did not know much about Mental Illness but she was able to receive the diagnosis she wanted due to the unexpected nature of her crime in addition the clinicians who evaluated her were stunned by the lack of a compelling motive one clinician even indicated that the lack of motive is what led to the conclusion that Sydney was insane and could not distinguish between right and wrong mental health assessments are largely based on the statements of the client Sydney claimed that she was psychotic and the clinicians believed her this case offers even more evidence demonstrating how mental health assessments are inadequate in legal situations in this case the testimony of the mental health professionals looked less like an application of Science and more like an investment in fantasy the clinicians had a lot of faith in a set of strategies which are not reliable or valid for identifying lingering Behavior Psychotherapy is excellent for resolving mental health problems but it is not good at detecting dishonesty now moving to my final thoughts when looking at the various characteristics of narcissism it's clear why certain ones are considered dangerous like arrogance grandiosity or Envy other traits however are sometimes overlooked because they appear innocuous like a sense of entitlement in reality this can be one of the most dangerous traits in the case of Sydney Powell her sense of entitlement was so powerful she wanted people to join her in believing things that were not true initially she wanted everyone to ignore her suspension from college her sense of entitlement combined with impulsivity which led to jumping from the frying pan Into the Fire later Sydney wanted everyone to ignore her guilt foreseeing The Perils of narcissistic traits can be a formidable challenge these attributes introduce a capriciousness into life that renders it unpredictable it's disconcerting to consider that any given person can be one emotional disturbance and a cast iron skillet away from becoming a killer those are my thoughts in the case of Sydney Powell please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 262,708

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Id: KArywel1Bi0

Length: 14min 36sec (876 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023