Nightmare in Phoenix
(“Walking Terror,” Forensic Files)
If you’re looking for a story about a wholesome nuclear family no one ever imagined could harbor a murderer, the “Walking Terror” episode of Forensic Files should hit the spot.
Scott Falater and Yarmila Klesken started dating in high school and wed in 1976. She loved him enough to adopt a surname that sounds like a brothel-worker classification.
Scott, a Motorola engineer, and Yarmila, a preschool teaching aide, had a son and a daughter, a golden retriever, and a comfortable house in Phoenix, Arizona.
No secrets. The family made few ripples until Scott stabbed Yarmila 44 times with a hunting knife and drowned her in their backyard pool on January 16, 1997.
Normally, after a commercial or two in a Forensic Files story such as this, we learn about the administrative assistant the husband has been secretly romancing or the hidden financial problems in the family and the life insurance jackpot the surviving spouse hoped to receive.
But “Walking Terror” offers up none of that. The only conflicts between the two allegedly stemmed from the fact that he wanted more children and she felt he spent too much time on church activities — hardly the kind of stuff that boils over into homicide.
Call in the pros. Instead, we find out that Scott had a history of sleepwalking. He claimed that he was sleepwalking when he killed Yarmila and had no memory of the incident.
Scott’s sister, Laura, had once tried to wake him up during a sleepwalking episode when he was a teenager, she said, and he reacted by flinging her across the room.
Yarmila Falater’s murder case ended up hinging upon the testimony from sleep-disorder experts as well as a neighbor who saw the attack.
If Scott could prove he was sleepwalking when he killed his wife, he could escape legal responsibility and glide out of the courtroom a free man.
Aye said the jury. In its own way, Falater’s defense made some sense. There was no evidence of prior spousal battery or any waking physical abuse toward anyone.
Still, I found myself rooting for the expert witnesses who doubted Scott’s story. Someone had to pay for the horrible death.
And if a person is capable of killing someone while sleepwalking, maybe that individual belongs behind razor wire, period.
That didn’t matter, however, because the jury rejected the theory that Scott Falater was sleepwalking during the attack and found him guilty of premeditated murder.
For this week’s post, I looked around for an epilogue for him.
But first a recap of the Forensic Files episode along with additional facts from internet research.
Blackout. On a chilly night in 1997, Phoenix resident Greg Coons heard screams coming from his next-door neighbor’s house. Peering over the fence between the properties, Coons saw Scott Falater, age 41, repeatedly stab his wife, also 41, in the backyard, then go inside to change clothes.
Next, Scott tried to quiet his agitated dog and then rolled Yarmila into the swimming pool and held her head underwater. He sealed his knife and bloody clothes in a Tupperware container and deposited it in the wheel well of his Volvo.
By this time, Coons had alerted police, who arrived on the scene and took Scott away in handcuffs. During the subsequent interrogation, Scott told detective John Norman he had no memory of what he had done and that he and Yarmila had a happy marriage.
He remembered Yarmila watching ER on TV when he went to bed that night, and the next thing he recalled was the sound of police sirens in his driveway, he said. “I heard the dogs go crazy, and I heard all the voices, came down, and you guys were all over me. God,” Scott told Norman.
Clash of the experts. During the ensuing investigation, the authorities indulged Scott’s sleepwalking contention by sending him to the Sleep Disorders Service and Research Center, where experts studied his brain waves over a four-day period and found abnormalities consistent with those of sleepwalkers.
Scott Falater had interruptions in his phases of sleep right before the dreaming stage, typical of sleepwalkers.
Psychologist Rosalind Cartwright, who testified for the defense, told Forensic Files that sleepwalkers have committed such senseless acts as destroying their own furniture or plunging their own arms through panes of glass.
The kindly mannered Cartwright believed in Scott’s innocence. Her theory was that Scott, while sleepwalking, was working to fix a malfunctioning swimming pool pump, when Yarmila walked over to question him about it. His fight or flight impulse kicked in and he attacked her, Cartwright suggested.
Why did he feel threatened by his own wife? Sleepwalkers are incapable of facial recognition during episodes, Cartwright said. Scott mistook Yarmila for an attacker, she believed.
Memory bank. County prosecutor Juan Martinez mocked the credentials of Cartwright and the defense’s other sleep expert, Robert Broughton.
Their résumés “are nothing but steps to their shrines of self-indulgence,” Martinez told the jury. He also pointed out that Broughton’s and Falater’s explanation differed about stashing the clothes in the car.
Broughton said it was a routine task because Falater kept clothes in his car to wear for yard work, but Falater said they were there for emergencies.
Martinez called on sleep-disorder expert Mark Pressman, M.D., who testified that Yarmila’s screams of pain and the dog’s barking would have awakened a sleepwalker.
Pressman also asserted that a sleepwalker can’t create new memories during an episode. Scott’s recognition of the need to conceal the bloody evidence meant that he knew what he was doing all along, Pressman testified.
Martinez theorized that Scott planned to kill Yarmila, go back to bed, and allow his children to find her body the next morning and think a random stranger had murdered her.
During the six-week trial, the prosecutors also contended that the Falater marriage wasn’t all hearts and flowers and noted that Yarmila wasn’t wearing her wedding ring when police found her body.
Backup excuse. Perhaps, the prosecution ventured, Scott knew about the 1987 case of a Canadian man named Ken Parks who was acquitted of killing his mother-in-law because, he claimed, he did it unintentionally while sleepwalking.
Maybe Scott planned to use a sleepwalking defense as a backup plan in case the unknown-attacker ploy failed.
Martinez, who newspaper reporter Paul Rubin described as having the “demeanor of an adrenalized boxer,” hammered Scott Falater’s contention that stress at work contributed to his alleged frazzled sleepwalking state on the night of the killing.
According to Rubin’s Phoenix New Times article: “Falater testified that Yarmila was the only person he’d told about his sleep deprivation. ‘And she can’t come in and testify, can she?’ Martinez snapped at him.”
Jurors convicted Scott after eight hours of deliberation. “It’s not over yet,” Scott announced as he left the courtroom, according to a New York Post story entitled “Wide-Awake Jury Nails ‘Sleepwalking’ Wife Killer.”
Scott also expressed remorse, as reported by the Associated Press:
“I have no memory of what happened. The one thing I do know is that I loved my wife. . . . I’ve tortured myself a hundred times with thoughts of what must have been going through her [Yarmila’s] mind as she was being attacked by me. It had to have been a terrifying, confusing, and painful experience for her.”
At least he didn’t try to blame the victim.
Mother-in-law speaks. Megan, the Falaters’ 18-year-old daughter, who was a freshman at the University of Chicago, and Michael, their 15-year-old son, both testified that Scott was a great father and they wanted to continue their relationship with him.
Yarmila’s mother (also named Yarmila) told the judge she wanted her grandchildren to have Scott in their lives, albeit with him in a jail cell.
Noting the children’s testimony that the Falaters had a happy marriage free of violence, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Ronald Reinstein declined to impose the death penalty and instead sentenced Scott to life with no possibility of parole.
While reaffirming his belief in Scott’s innocence, defense lawyer Mike Kimerer conceded the sleepwalking contention presented a challenge. “You would love to have a much different defense,” Kimerer said. “We didn’t have anything else.”
Single white male. Today, Scott Falater is inmate No. 148979 in the Arizona Department of Corrections system.
Aside from one incident in 2004, when he “disobeyed an order,” Scott has behaved himself in prison. His work assignments have included teacher’s aide, library aide, and data entry clerk.
One online commenter joked that Scott’s last name could make him very popular in jail. Just the same, for everyone’s safety, let’s hope the warden has him sleeping alone, in a locked cell.
That’s all for this post. Until next week, cheers. — RR
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I’d be very sceptical of this defence. “…sleepwalkers have committed such senseless acts as destroying their own furniture or plunging their own arms through panes of glass.” Well, yes, sleepwalkers DO walk through glass doors, and hurt themselves in the process of sleepwalking — but these are merely incidental to their sleepwalking — accidents. It’s much less easy to conceive of a sleepwalker taking a knife, locating a spouse, overpowering her and killing her — because it appears to show intent, whereas the layman understands sleepwalking to be characterised by randomness (rightly or wrongly) and potential self — not other — harm. The unavoidably persuasive facts of his apparently trying to conceal the aftermath of the stabbing compound this by appearing very hard to square with sub-conscious acts
If I were a jury member, expert defence testimony would have to be very convincing indeed, and it’s unsurprising it wasn’t in this case. Yet if there were intent, it seems a pretty naive, and troubling, way of ‘offing’ one’s spouse — not to mention the trauma caused to the children of discovering the body. Perhaps he thought the latter was an acceptable price to be rid of her. And why the overkill? 44 times could reflect unawareness — or that this was intensely personal, hate-driven. But if the latter, no-one seems to have had an awareness of hatred / infidelity / insurance payout — all the usual suspected motives.
So if not sleepwalking, what WAS the motive? The prosecution would certainly be weakened without one — but not quite enough…
Stabbing someone 44 times sure doesn’t sound incidental.
And you imagine that unless he killed her in the first stab or two, her screaming would awaken him. Yet if I understood correctly and there were sleeping children in the house, if awake and intent, he risked just those screams alerting them, unless he used something to muffle them – which would imply intent.
Thanks for posting, RR: I must see this episode in the hope that these questions are addressed…
Thanks for your comments! The episode is definitely worth seeing more than once. One of the major-network news magazines did an hourlong episode about the case years ago, but no luck finding it online.
No, her screaming would have woken him. He went back and drowned her. He hid the weapon and the bloody clothing It’s all too much for me to believe, either you’re capable of murder or you’re not I don’t believe your subconscious is different than your conscious state to this degree. I believe he was a very suppressed person who hid his feelings & snapped. He could have blacked out after he started but not through all that — at some point your subconscious has to take over. Maybe he had a history of psychosis that had been suppressed, but this is all too much – the drowning, the covering up. I wonder if he sleep walks in jail. He might have the first month or two or even three to be convincing but I would bet he doesn’t sleep walk at all anymore. He seemed very content with his new life in prison in the telephone interview.
Seems odd that sleep walkers never do anything good for their spouse.
Tee hee, he should have sleepwalked her some breakfast in bed.
I’m theorizing, maybe, that when a man sleep walks and does good, wives don’t notice he’s in a coma. Or that he’s only Beau Brummel when he’s sleep walking or sleep what-evering. There may even be men out there who can buy their spouse a Benz while sleep walking.
I’d like to meet one of those sleepwalkers.
It makes you wonder: do sleepwalkers do routine things un-newsworthy: the laundry, ironing… prepare dinner at 4am?
How common is AGGRESSION, as opposed to other behaviours, manifested in sleepwalking, I wonder? And if disproportionately high, why? Is it fed by bad dreams/nightmares occurring simultaneously that could elicit aggression as a flight-or-flight response,say?
Yes, sleepwalkers most often do unremarkable things like that. Heck, some people go right to the fridge, eat some food, and then go back to bed (and have been filmed doing it, since they didn’t believe people when they told them they were doing things like that).
If I remember correctly, Kenneth Parks had earlier on showed some aggression while sleepwalking (strangling his sister, I think, but she survived that attack), so I suppose it can happen, but it would be hard if not impossible to look up how common it is. Sleepwalking itself seems to be triggered by sleep deprivation. At least according to this page: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/sleepwalking .
N: The difficulty I have with the example you give – I appreciate it’s just an example – is that that’s fulfilling a need: the sleepwalker was maybe ‘hungry’ – and in that case it’s no different from sleepwalking to the loo at night; both are basic needs But preparing a family meal or doing the laundry are activities of a different order and for me are more convincing sleepwalking examples.
In your example, how do we know the hungry person isn’t merely ‘half-asleep’ as opposed to sleepwalking, unless it’s under sleep laboratory conditions? This is one of the questions I might expect a jury to ask when presented with the sleepwalking defence. Of course, in the final analysis a jury’s reasonable doubt as to murderous intention is the best it can get, since it didn’t happen in a lab, brainwaves etc weren’t being recorded.
It should be noted that the absence of an apparent motive is not in itself in law relevant. Although it will be cited as probative of innocence, plenty of non-sleepwalkers have been convicted of murder sans apparent motive. It’s INTENT that’s in issue in law, and motive and intent are different…
I suppose that’s why these cases tend to create a lot of discussions, Marcus. It’s really hard to prove intent, and if a case involves sleepwalking, it can be almost impossible. In Falater’s case, I think (not sure) that they managed to show intent in other ways, hence he was proven guilty. In Parks case, the jury had enough of reasonable doubt to not convict.
About the sleepwalking example: yeah, I thought about that as I was writing it. No way to prove it, really. Unless the person has been to a laboratory and had everything recorded under controlled circumstances, nothing about sleepwalking can be proven.
Also, I had no idea that this was an actual Wikipedia page you might find interesting?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homicidal_sleepwalking
Yes, I am a sleepwalker and I have cleaned the house and done dishes and then when I woke up the next day to go clean my house and do the dishes it was already done and I don’t remember doing it.
But then I also live alone so I don’t know what I would do if I was living with someone. Maybe kill them?
I was a sleepwalker as a child. I would get out of bed, find a duster and start to dust the living room furniture. I never got far, though, because my mother would find me, wake me up very gently and take me back to bed. I don’t recall if, when I awoke the next morning, I remembered my nocturnal activity.
Yes, I sleep walk and make a meal, clean the garage, take a walk after midnight in the snow. I have fallen asleep on my kitchen floor. I have never hurt anyone but I did holler to my husband at 2:00 AM that I needed him to go to the store for hamburger meat cuz I was making tacos. He came downstairs and found I had chopped up everything needed for a taco meal. All that was missing was meat. He put everything away and walked me back to bed. I have no memory of these incidents. And there were many more.
Thanks for sharing this — I’m very, very glad to hear from a sleepwalker who thinks Scott F. is guilty.
I completely agree
Good marriage, no abuse, no real motive, he appeared confused at the time: that sounds like a genuine sleepwalking case. Why then was he convicted? Because expert evidence was that his actions were much more complex than could be done while sleepwalking. Nowadays, people place a lot of faith in science. But there is something called “junk science.” Bite mark evidence immediately comes to mind (the “Snaggletooth Killer”). Some fatal fires have been incorrectly attributed to arson (Paul Camiolo, and I think John Maloney as well). So how strong is that sleepwalking evidence? If there isn’t a lot of such evidence, then it can’t be strong. And I’m wondering if there wasn’t an element of “night terror” combined with sleepwalking. Under such circumstances, I would find it difficult to convict. But if someone was convicted, then it should be a shorter sentence with parole. And it should be conditional: if further evidence subsequently shows that sleepwalking people CAN do such complex actions, then he should be released and pardoned.
“Good marriage, no abuse, no real motive…” So it may be to us…
Motive: an idea, belief, or emotion that impels a person to act in accordance with that state of mind.
We cannot presume to know the state of another’s mind, thus their motive…
In criminal law, motive is distinct from intent. Criminal intent refers to the mental state of mind possessed by a defendant in committing a crime. With few exceptions the prosecution in a criminal case must prove that the defendant intended to commit the illegal act. The prosecution need not prove the defendant’s motive. Nevertheless, prosecution and defense alike may make an issue of motive in connection with the case.
The sleepwalking expert said that Scott had 65 behaviors serving the incident that are not typical of a sleepwalker. Just touching the cold water alone would’ve waking him up. His wife screaming would’ve waking him up. He would’ve not told his dog to be quiet, or changed clothes, and put his clothes in the back of his car etc. etc. etc. That’s why it only took eight hours to convict him.
„Just touching the cold water alone would’ve waking him up. His wife screaming would’ve waking him up.“
That‘s what they said, yes. Interestingly in Germany Forensic Files is aired in a dubbed version and from time to time they add some local experts to an episode who give some additional information, focus on how views have changed or point out how detectives in other countries are working.
Right after the water sentence there was another expert (not included in the english language airings; just watched the episode in rerun 30 min ago) that said „Just touching cold water is by far not enough to wake up a sleepwalking person. Even if you shake them or yell at them it may take several minutes for them to completely wake up and realize where they are.“ Afterwards they did cut back to the OFF-Narrator with the line „This shows how controversial this topic still is“.
Anyway, I somehow feel sorry for this man, because his story seems plausible to me – otherwise he would be the dumbest killer of all times by leaving tons of evidence after killing somebody without apparent motive.
But the problem is, as RR pointed out, that -if it was done during sleepwalking- those incidents may occur all the time and nobody within several miles will be safe.
Tbh, I prefer my murderers as usual: Cold-blooded, arrogant, hateable. Then it‘s great to see them behind bars. This case gives me mixed feelings.
Was he taking any sort of sleep medication or other psychotropic drug? I wouldn’t be surprised! If so, that should’ve been part of the defense, esp. if Ambien or SSRIs.
Also… Why did the neighbor not call 911 sooner? He reports that he listened to the victim screaming for help for 20-30 minutes!
I was given Ambien to sleep better….after three nights, one morning my husband asked me something about a lengthy conversation he witnessed me having with my son midnight the night before. He said we talked 15 minutes with my eyes open…..yet I had no memory of this happening!,,,I stopped using Ambien immediately. I thought of Scott Falater….
What a shame. Great example of our ridiculous justice system. Juries are most commonly staffed with your average God-fearing, entertainment-dazzled, ‘Mercan dipshits with an IQ of 85 or less. This includes college grads as the majority of colleges and the comical “disciplines” they offer here in the US only serve to supply said dipshits with a piece of paper in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars. An engineer will never be on a jury as form determinations based on the analysis of facts instead of a forming conclusions based on the theatrics and story telling abilities of dbag prosecutes, whose only real purpose is victory over justice.
Engineers do not consciously act or react off the cuff to any situation. We think of all possible steps our intellect can conclude. Mr. Falater was (by all rights is and will always be) an engineer. The man never committed a crime in his life. No motive. Alleged first degree premeditated murder by the state of AZ. The prosecution claims this mild mannered engineer’s premeditated plan was to stab his wife nearly four dozens times, drown her in the pool, take the bloody clothes and put them in the car, then patch himself up and wait for morning for the kids to find the body so he can claim it was sleepwalking. That ridiculous accusation would stop any engineer in their tracks and prevent a guilty verdict. Why bother putting the clothes in the car? Why stab 44 times AND drown her? Why not secure the dog in another part of the property away from the backyard so there would be no chance of waking the neighbors or kids? Those are just three questions that came to mind within thirty seconds.
Finally, we do not really know anything about the human brain. To date, we have only grasped the most basic understanding. There are an incredible amount of instances which prove this fact.
I have driven a car successfully being asleep and had driven it perfectly without any memory.
Human brain is still very unknown territory.
Just look at his puzzlement when interrogated. He had no clue. A calm, non-criminal history person suddenly kills a wife.
I drove on a highway in total sleep state making correct turns. Why could not a person perform those tasks he did in a total sleep state?
Also my son sleep walked when he was a child and it was very difficult to even get him to wake up.
There must be much more research done in this area. The sad thing is in the USA it is much more important to convict someone than to accept the fact that we still do not understand everything in human behavior and reasons behind it.
How do you know you were ‘in total sleep state’? Not recalling the drive doesn’t in itself suggest you were asleep, but I accept that it’s possible successfully to drive while asleep. In sleep-walking / -driving, a sleep state dissociation occurs, in which the frontal cortex, responsible for higher judgment and planning, is asleep, while at the same time, motor centres responsible for behaviour are active. Thus a person may unknowingly execute complex behaviours.
Unless you have met & have been in the heads of every single engineer, you cannot say how they all think & act. Your opinions regarding both engineers & college students is a sweeping generalisations & assumption.
Same with comments about prosecutors. One could say the same thing or similar about some defence attorneys.
I don’t believe the police or the courts have released all the information & evidence they have regarding this case, to the public. There are too many questions left unanswered otherwise.
The jury would have answers to these questions, if they don’t. Well that would be the defence attorneys’ or even the prosecutors’ fault (as my questions would be for & against Mr.Falater).
I think, it’s highly unfair to put sole blame on the Jury.
“Engineers do not consciously act or react off the cuff to any situation.”
Do you even live in the real world?
Tell that to my Boeing engineer father that beat the living crap out of his first wife and then my mother (his 2nd wife) time and again.
That is the same thing the police would tell both women…he is an engineer, don’t ruin his career & your children’s lives.
They did that until he beat his girlfriend into a miscarriage.
Her father was a local big-wig and that outweighed his engineering job.
THAT was the only thing that stopped him.
And if you think he was the only abusive engineer (or one capable of horrific harm to women) I have oceanfront property in Iowa for sale.
What a load of pathetic, self-important horseshit. You should be deeply embarrassed by this comment.
☝️Mr. Falater must have online access in prison.
I worked at the Yuma Prison complex from 2011 to 2018 as an educator; for two weeks, in early 2012, Scott Falater was my classroom clerk. I moved from the Cocopah Unit, one of the minimum security yards, to the Cibola Unit after a teacher moved to the Phoenix area to take care of her mother. I was not aware of his notoriety (not as an inmate–he was VERY well-behaved and low key–but rather his crime) until one of the other teachers on the Cibola Unit mentioned who he was. I recalled the ‘Forensic Files’ episode, so naturally I Googled him. We never discussed his crime, as it did not feel proper, but he did mention he was appealing his conviction (as many inmates were). My stint at the Cibola Unit was short-lived as a teacher was retiring from the max-custody unit, Dakota, and I ended up at Dakota (for the next 4 years). Since a couple other teachers left Yuma in the following months, they actually cut two classrooms, and Falater ended up working as one of the clerks for the office that is in charge of assigning jobs on the unit to inmates. I would see him from time to time at staff meetings when we had them at Cibola, and when I quit last January 2018 to move to California, he was still working in the WIPP office (don’t ask me what the acronym is, lol, but I do know the ‘W’ is ‘work’ and I believe the ‘I’ is incentive…). Funny enough, there were a couple other inmates who I got to know during my employment who were featured on shows like ‘Forensic Files’, on different units at Yuma.
Excellent post, Mike, brilliant analysis and debunking of the prosecution scenario, showing it just doesn’t make sense, especially not for someone with his engineering background. Your comment about the human brain reinforces my concern that we don’t know enough about sleepwalking.
And thanks also Culcune, for your brief but very positive testimonial to his character. It reinforces my concern that he wouldn’t have knowingly committed that crime, and so was wrongfully convicted. WIPP could stand for “work incentive pay plan”: were they paid for the work they did?
Charles: The offender’s background appears to have little bearing on the process of their crime, so I suggest this man’s being an engineer is neither here nor there: FF is replete with stories of medical doctors (and the odd dentist) who ‘betrayed’ their notional logical or scientific bent by committing crimes in the most inept, counter-professional manner. Special pleading for engineers won’t cut it.
And Culcune isn’t offering a testimonial for him, merely an observation that he was well-behaved and quiet: a description that I could offer of many of the prisoners I worked with (as a chaplain) who committed awful crimes, some of whom had no record prior to that crime.
It’s tempting to make the facts (as one claims them) fit one’s prejudices – in this case that this man isn’t guilty as charged – but, with respect, I think you’re engaging in confirmation bias, as is Mike (Google ‘mild-mannered murderer’ – re the suggestion that mild-mannered engineers don’t commit wicked crimes – and you’ll see some interesting results for what the ‘mild-mannered’ have done!)
This man may well be innocent of what he was convicted of – but being (i) an engineer (even ‘mild-mannered) and (ii) nice and quiet in prison, are assuredly not reasons to believe it…
Marcus: I am not saying he’s innocent. I’m just saying there are valid reasons to doubt his guilt. I don’t know if there is enough scientific evidence to be sure he is guilty.
I look at the totality of evidence, and the points raised by Mike and Culcune are merely added to the “innocent” side of the balance. Neither is conclusive proof of innocence but they do point in that direction.
The prosecution scenario doesn’t make sense for a premeditated murder by anyone, not just an engineer. Is it likely that they would have overlooked the points raised by Mike when planning the murder?
I am aware that people can snap, and do something uncharacteristic for them. The multiple stab wounds in this case are consistent with such a scenario. But what other evidence is there to support that scenario? What event that night could have caused him to snap?
To me, the question isn’t whether mild-mannered people never murder, but whether the murder rate among them is (much) lower than that among other people. If it is, as seems likely (with the possible exception of snapping), then this is justification for taking this factor into account.
From your experience, do mild-mannered prisoners cause more trouble or less trouble than other prisoners?
If you look at my first comment (about 3 months ago), you will see that I understand that there could be a conviction in a case like this. But if there is, then an allowance should be made for doubt.
Charles, I can remember a number of episodes on unsolved mysteries about mild mannered prisoners, murderers & the like, that were in maximum security. But, because they were so nice & mild mannered they were given either special privileges, moved to a lower security prison or work release/day release jobs (whatever they call it). Some of these then went on to escaping, not returning after being on their job release program. From memory, some that escaped killed a few guards in the process. I remember one kidnapped the warden’s wife & took off for months. He was later caught, still had the wife & the wife was ok.
As I said in another comment, I don’t believe we have all the facts & the evidence that was used in the court case. They do sometimes withhold some information so as not to give ppl a step by step guide on how to do this or use this defence.
If I were to judge, Mr.Falater based on everything I’ve seen & read about the case, guilty. His answers in the police interview contradict at times. And the marriage wasn’t as happy as you think. She wasn’t wearing her wedding ring at the time, some say she wasn’t watching tv on the couch but was sleeping on the couch. He is highly religious, worries about his standing in the Morman church, community & his image. During one interview (or some letter he wrote), he was so proud how high he got in the church & how he has some title then said he’ll probably be cut now.
Idk, there’s so much to this case. I would be here all day & night explaining. But, things are not always as they seem & what seems like a simple case, is not.
Agree
Agree with Marcus
Charles: Hello. To take your main point:
‘I look at the totality of evidence, and the points raised by Mike and Culcune are merely added to the “innocent” side of the balance. Neither is conclusive proof of innocence but they do point in that direction.’ With respect to Mike, I suggest there is absolutely no *probative* value in his observation – as I explained above. Re Culcune, I read no probative offering into that, either; indeed, none appears intended. As seven leaky buckets hold no more water than one, there is no ‘cumulative’ value to such arguments, as you appear to suggest (ie, they don’t add to the ‘totality’ of evidence – because they’re not evidence, being of no probative value whatsoever – so I respectfully disagree that they ‘point in that direction.’
The problem with the question you raise about the probativeness of mild-mannered people is that while in the abstract it might be a reasonable assumption that such people are less inclined to violent behaviour, we can never know because (i) no such assessment is made or recorded of those convicted of violent crimes and (ii) how is such a descriptor defined? We are thrown back on the abstract notion, which is hopeless for the purpose for which you want. So I have to suggest that this, too, is of no probative value, and I couldn’t really answer your question from my own experience. Do ‘still waters run deep’ (and dangerous)? They may well…
I’m offering no view on guilt or innocence here, just respectfully suggesting that what your good self, Mike and Culcune offer do not and cannot advance innocence in any degree.
The other thing I’d add – as I have elsewhere – is that caution should be exercised in thinking we know better than the jury who heard all the evidence. Unless we read the trial transcript, I take issue with Mike in suggesting that jurors are dumb and we know better. In most cases, jurors are unanimous – so 12 people (of varying ability) agree. We have to have good reason to suggest they were wrong… Of course juries indisputably get it wrong – but they can only judge the evidence presented to them, which can and has included forensic ‘junk science.’ It’s up to a decent defence to sow doubt about such matters. When people berate juries and that system as dumb, what would they replace it with?
Where is the end of the post? Accidentally deleted?
I just fixed the problem. Please let me know if you have more trouble seeing the rest of the post (and thanks much for the heads-up).
https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/2017/07/20/scott-falater-sleepwalking-killer-gets-a-wakeup-call/
When it was about Ken Park, I had no doubts about him sleepwalking, because he checks out all of the boxes. Falater is a much tougher case to judge, though.
I’m a former sleepwalker. I base it all of my witnesses: my family. Apparently I walked out into the living room, where the rest of my family was. My mother was a former sleepwalker herself, so she knew what to do: she calmly managed to get me to walk back to my bedroom and lie down again, where I kept on sleeping. That was just one of several times that I was sleepwalking. Basing it on my own experiences as well as my mother’s, I’d say that it’s not as likely that Falater was sleepwalking. Possible? Maybe, but not likely. My mother could walk out into a lake, but that wasn’t enough to wake her – it took that and her father grabbing her. It very much depends on how heavy a sleeper one is. I can sleep through barking dogs and some screams, so could my mother,but can Falater do so?
Also, I would think that the combination of actually stabbing someone, the water, the screams and everything, that Falater would awaken, but again – how heavy a sleeper is he? A very heavy sleeper might continue sleeping, but a normal one would not, most likely. In his case there are just too many suspicious things that make you think that he’s definitely guilty.
I suggest a jury could only reasonably acquit for doubt in these circumstances if there were other recorded cases of people doing a sustained series of overtly intentional acts engaging a full range of mental and motor skills that equate to being awake AND failing to wake despite considerable physical and aural stimuli – struggle (and therefore discomfort, even pain) and screaming.
I don’t buy it.
I’d be interested to know if ‘sleepwalkers’ have self-harmed (ie, deliberately) rather than just other-harmed. A sleepwalker who’s stabbed himself several times despite no evidence of suicidal ideation would cause me to re-think…
Yep, I fully agree. Like in my mother’s case, I would have believed in her being able to do something like Kenneth Park did. Because, like in his particular case, there were numerous witnesses to their problems throughout the years.
Basing it on what I’ve been able to read about Falater, there are no records of him having similar problems throughout the years, so if I had been in that jury, I would most likely have voted for him being guilty.
I have no idea if some people might have done that – I wouldn’t be surprised if someone did though, considering what some people do while they are sleepwalking.
Reading a little more about homicidal somnambulism, I’m getting the impression of judicial inconsistency. We can all see the problem of the get-out-of-jail-free card: ‘I killed her when sleepwalking; it’s not my fault.’
There would appear to need to be a validated history of sleepwalking for a start – more than self-report to a dr (as that could be self-serving); rather, sleep specialist involvement and objective observation of sleepwalking/unusual brain activity. This, of course, wouldn’t cover the unfortunate ‘first-timer’, who kills on his first walk or whose sleepwalking escalates to murderous activity.
My initial thinking is agreement with those drs who argue such homicide, where accepted as involuntary, should be treated as mental disorder for secure hospital treatment rather than plain acquittal (as has happened) – for what’s to stop it happening again? Unless it can be treated, the treatment accepted and sustained, with evidence of its success, how can the ‘perp’ be safely freed potentially to repeat?
In the final analysis, whether we killed voluntarily or not, having done it once seems in such a case to make it too risky simple to release us, without several years’ confinement to ascertain if we’re safe… We lose our freedom for some time – but that’s a hell of a lot better than a guilty verdict and many years of prison for someone being killed by us.
Finally, one might ask why no repeat of such homicides has been recorded (assuming it hasn’t)? Why would such a perp only ever do it once if they’ve been freed? Is that just good fortune for all concerned or were they treated?
A friend of a friend is a sleep specialist at Oxford Univ. I’ll request his perspective on this…
HEADS UP: I’m pretty sure (just from reading the description) that this story is being retold tonight on OWN’s “20/20”; check it out.
HEADS UP: I’m pretty sure (just from reading the description) that this story is being told tonight on OWN’s “20/20”; check it out!
Lol, he did everything but give himself a pedicure.
This must be the weirdest case I’ve watched from Forensic Files. Speaking of sleep walking, my elementary classmate’s sister was also a sleep walker. One night, one of her sleep walking episodes, her room mate wakes up due to the noise then seeing her friend on the window. The sleep walker then told her roomate that she can fly. Then jump through the window. She died from that 2 storey jump. Sorry for my bad english. It happened in the Philippines where I also live.
OMG!
Hiding the murder weapon (knife) and his bloody clothes in his car after stabbing her 40 times? No, this wasn’t an act of someone in a sleepwalking state, this was a calculated move by an alert and active thinking mind. By hiding evidence like this was a very calculated move. He recognized his dog getting upset over what was happening and calmed him down, so how come he didn’t recognize his wife when she was screaming and calm her down? When he realized that stabbing his wife didn’t kill her, he dragged her out to the pool and held her under water until she drowned. Again, an active thinking mind. When plan A didn’t kill her he moved to plan B. This was no sleepwalker and his claim that he was sleepwalking borders on the ridiculous. Even if he were to be “believed,” this guy has to be locked up for life to save the same thing from happening to someone else.
Good point about realizing his dog was upset – but not the woman he was killing.
Something that wasn’t clear to me after watching the episode – did the prosecution concede that Falater was a genuine sleepwalker (regardless of whether he was sleepwalking while killing)? Or was this basic point in dispute?
This case has traumatized me. As a mother of a sleepwalker, I have seen my son stay in a zombie-like state for an hour completing tasks. He looks vacant and a little creepy. In high school he woke up a mile a way at his favorite restaurant in the middle of the night. He called a friend for a ride home and I knew nothing about it for months (his bedroom was downstairs). One night he spent hours writing emails to his girlfriend about his Jimmy John’s cookie and how she should just confess that she ate it. He emailed many people that night, which would have taken him hours. He remembered nothing the next day. He was also a little strange and aggressive when he got his wisdom teeth out which was not his normal personality. My younger kids were afraid of him until the medication wore off. I could go on and on about experiences that we had. Roommates had to deal with it and now his new wife. I found it impossible to wake him up when he was in this state and he did very complex things while asleep. We have talked about sleep studies but I’ve been told that they rarely catch an episode and can be very expensive and inconclusive. I wouldn’t have believed this story if I hadn’t lived with these episodes but I have seen too much to discount it. It’s creepy even though we have never seen him be violent.
When I watched the 20/20 interview and he was leaning against the wall and bewildered, I freaked out because I have seen that semi-alert state many times.
Thank you for writing in about this —— it’s fascinating to hear a first-person account. I have to ask you, do you think Scott F. belongs in prison?