Katlyn Marin, a 25-year-old New Hampshire mom, is scheduled to stand trial August 15 in the brutal beating death of her little, three-year-old daughter Brielle Eternity Gage almost two years ago. New evidence, revealed by prosecutors this week and reported by WMUR TV News in Nashua , showed that Marin took extreme measures in order to escape blame for the horrifying murder. A murder they say she committed over two days of hell for the little girl while the mom was high on heroin.
According to documents unveiled by prosecutors on Friday, as she sat in jail, Katlyn Marin first enlisted her father’s help to frame her ex-lover and father of another of her children, Michael Rivera, 32, for Brielle’s savage slaying.
Katlyn Marin, the Nashua mom accused of killing her toddler daughter, Brielle Gage, in court for hearing@UnionLeader pic.twitter.com/Bs4WLwhPYX
— Kimberly Houghton (@Kimber_Houghton) January 22, 2016
When that failed, Marin tried to find a way to have Rivera killed, the prosecutors say. Rivera is expected to serve as the prosecution’s primary witness against Katlyn Marin in the bench trial, in which the verdict will be decided by the presiding judge rather than a jury.
Little Brielle Gage died in a hospital after repeated beatings over the days of November 24 and 25 in 2014. Marin called police on November 25 to report that her daughter had fallen down the stairs after suffering a seizure.
But according to the police investigation and medical reports, Brielle suffered from “battered child syndrome,” the Manchester Union Leader newspaper reported.
According to an autopsy report revealed by the Union Leader , Brielle had a large contusion on her head, a broken finger, bruises on her lungs and external bruises on her torso when she died. The autopsy report also “noted that her ears had been manipulated so roughly that it caused bleeding to her scalp. Clusters of bruises were discovered consistent with punching and poking.”
The following WMUR video news report contains further details on the chilling allegations against Katlyn Marin.
Court records based on interviews with witnesses who knew Katlyn Marin describe her as a mom who violently resented her daughter — and as a violent person as well.
Her former boyfriend, Christopher Marin, described her in court records as a “dark and rotten” person who “hurts people just for the thrill.”
Police also spoke with several other individuals familiar with the relationship between Katlyn Marin and her daughter, who said that Marin “disliked and harbored animosity toward her daughter,” according to records.
The mom relentlessly ridiculed the little girl for the way she spoke and often called Brielle “stupid,” while blaming the three-year-old for the loss of her own job. The mom was not physically affectionate toward her daughter and while pregnant with Brielle, told acquaintances that she had no desire for the child.
While prosecutors say that they expect Katlyn Marin to testify that Michael Rivera actually killed Brielle, they said on Friday that Marin’s father, Henry Gage, offered an unidentified man $15,000 to back up Marin’s claim that Rivera beat the little girl to death.
The prosecutors argue that the alleged bribe attempt serves as “proof of the defendant’s consciousness of guilt and helps establish her identity as the person who killed Brielle Gage.”
More details on the alleged framing attempt can be found in the video news report below.
They also say that in discussions between Katlyn Marin and her father, “the defendant shifted tactics to get Michael Rivera killed.”
But if they could frame Rivera, Marin’s father told her, “I think it’s going to work out for you. It’s going to create reasonable doubt,” the court documents say.
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Marin’s lawyers attempted to suppress evidence that she was high on heroin when she began what turned out to be the prolonged and fatal attack on Brielle Gage, but the court will allow that evidence at trial. Her heroin use is relevant a judge said because it could show that her expected testimony pinning the murder on Rivera may be flawed by a foggy memory clouded by drug use.
Katlyn Marin was arrested and charged in the heartbreaking murder of her daughter, Brielle Gage, in January of 2015. Her trial is finally set to open on Monday morning in Hillsborough County Superior Court
[Photos via Nashua Police, Justice for Brielle Eternity Facebook Page]