A 43-year-old Gresham mother who appeared to be having a psychotic crisis when she shot her 17-year-old son once in the heart — killing him — was found guilty except for insanity Friday.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Julie Frantz ordered defendant Dianne Davidoff to be under the jurisdiction of the state Psychiatric Security Review Board. Davidoff will immediately be sent to the Oregon State Hospital for mental treatment. She will be there indefinitely — with the possibility that the state board could release her back into the community one day if she gets better.
The judge found Davidoff guilty except for insanity to one count of murder with a firearm and one count of unlawful use of a weapon for the death of her son, Jacob Davidfoff, in September 2015 in their home.
Dianne Davidoff cried during Friday’s hearing, but didn’t make any statements.
Davidoff’s defense attorney, Martha Spinhirne, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that her client is devastated.
“This case defines tragedy,” Spinhirne said. “This was a woman who absolutely adored her children. …Everything she did was for her children.”
An expert for the prosecution diagnosed Dianne Davidoff with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. During a hearing last year, relatives testified that it had become apparently only shortly before the killing that Dianne Davidoff’s mental health was spiraling downward.
Spinhirne said Davidoff wants treatment.
“Dianne wants to go to the (state mental) hospital so she can learn about her illness,” Spinhirne said. “It’s scary to her, and she has a lot of questions to ask the doctors about how this happened.”
In the hours and minutes before Dianne Davidoff killed her son, she sent a series of bizarre text messages to her estranged husband. She accused him of killing her mother, even though her mother was still alive.
She referred to her daughter as “an angel that can’t save me,” and wrote, “It’s about to get real.” Later, she simply texted the words “evil” and “witchcraft.”
Less than six minutes later, she shot her son in the back, according to police. The bullet tore through his spine before entering a ventricle of his heart.
Dianne Davidoff and her son were moving out of their Gresham home the night of the killing. She’d lost her job, could no longer make payments and was forced to sell the house. She was getting about $6,000 — far less than the $30,000 she had hoped to get before she signed away the title earlier that day.
During Friday’s hearing, Dianne Davidoff’s daughter — who was the older sister of Jacob Davidoff — said she loves her mother deeply and thinks the shooting was unintentional and the product of her mother’s sudden mental illness. Daughter Katelyn Davidoff read aloud this statement:
“According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word mother is simply defined as a female parent. I don’t think that definition accurately depicts the true definition of what being a mother really is. I will never be able to find the words to convey to you the amount of love my mother has for her children. On September 24th, 2015, I lost not one, but two of my immediate family members — a pain that has been unfathomable. Never once did I think that this was intentional. My brother was my mom’s baby, they had a bond that was so deep, it was unbreakable. My mom would go to ends of the earth and back to protect her babies. I ask everyone that they please try to separate the person from the act, as I wholeheartedly believe that this was not in fact her, but rather an undiagnosed illness that had inevitably consumed her leaving just a shell of a person behind. I wake up everyday hoping that I’ll be waking up from this nightmare because it still doesn’t feel real to me. I want everyone to remember my brother as the kind, witty and respectful young man that he was. The talented CS:GO player known by his online persona DolphinWithLasers, who built everlasting friendships around the world with an amazing group of individuals. A group of people whom I hold very dear to my heart as did my brother, and still keep in contact with. In this process I’ve lost my whole family: my only sibling and my father. I don’t want to lose my mother as well. To my mom, I want you to know that my love for you is unconditional, just as yours is for me. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t understand how to love someone unconditionally, something you taught Jake and I from a very young age. Thank you for raising me to be so strong and resilient. For instilling such strong morals and hard work ethic in me, making me capable to overcome life’s obstacles. You’ve had so much to do with the young woman I’ve grown to be and I’m so grateful for that. Without these things I don’t know how I would’ve end began to get through this. I love you forever and always.”
— Aimee Green
agreen@oregonian.com
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