Jury finds Wellington mom guilty of murder in stabbing of 10-year-old son

A Sumner County jury found Lindsey Nicole Blansett guilty of murder in the December death of her 10-year-old son.

Blansett was found guilty of first-degree, premeditated murder after stabbing her son at their Wellington home. An autopsy report showed seven stab wounds to her son Caleb’s chest, said Kerwin Spencer, Sumner County attorney.

Jurors reached a verdict at around 4 p.m. on Tuesday after deliberating for roughly 6.5 hours since Monday, Spencer said.

They concluded that, shortly before midnight on Dec. 14, Blansett entered her son’s room with a knife and a rock.

She hit him over the head with the rock, after which Caleb woke up and said, “Mom, stop,” Spencer said.

She then stabbed him multiple times until he was dead, Spencer said.

For the first-degree murder charge, Spencer said, prosecutors had to prove Blansett acted intentionally to kill her son.

“A good portion of the testimony that happened yesterday dealt with psychological examinations of her, and so a good part of the deliberations today I’m sure dealt with whether or not she suffered from mental illness and, if she did, whether or not that kept her from being able to act intentionally,” Spencer said. “They obviously came to the conclusion ... even if she was mentally ill, that did not keep her from acting intentionally – she acted with premeditation.”

For the aggravated assault charge, Spencer said, prosecutors had to prove Blansett “knowingly caused her son to be in fear from a deadly weapon.”

An approximately 30-minute video of three interviews Blansett did with police investigators was shown to jurors, Spencer said. In the first interview, Blansett confessed to using a knife. In the second interview, she mentioned the rock, Spencer said. In the final interview, she said her son woke up after she hit him with a rock and said, “Mom, stop,” before Blansett stabbed him, Spencer said.

“She came up with the goal that she was going to kill her son to save him from further suffering in his life, and she took actions consistent with that goal,” he said. “That’s the way the evidence came out, and that’s what the jury decided happened.”

A message left with Blansett’s attorney was unanswered as of Tuesday evening.

Blansett is eligible for a Hard 50 sentence, which means she would have to serve 50 years before asking for parole for the first time, Spencer said. She could also receive a Hard 25 sentence, he said.

In May, Blansett was found mentally fit to stand trial in Sumner County.

She called 911 after stabbing her son, saying she “was saving him from the pain that was coming.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Jury finds Wellington mom guilty of murder in stabbing of 10-year-old son."