JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Lawyers defending Kimberly Kessler, the woman accused in the killing of Yulee hairstylist Joleen Cummings in 2018, are subpoenaing a nurse who treated her during a recent month-long stay.
Kimberly Kessler was hospitalized at UF Health in late June after a 56-day hunger strike nearly killed her, according to court records. Kessler, who has since been deemed incompetent to stand trial, apparently believes her jailers were trying to poison her food.
According to an earlier motion, Kessler was “Baker Acted” for posing a threat to the life of herself or others. It says she was transported to the hospital “by Nassau Jail personnel because her physical and mental health had deteriorated to a crisis point.”
Because Kessler has refused to work with her lawyers since last year, the only way they can get information about her health and conduct in the hospital is by putting her nurse under oath and ordering her to provide medical records. Lawyers with the Public Defender’s Office requested all medical and psychological records from Kessler’s June 30 to Aug. 30 hospital stay, as well as “behavioral indications and feeding information.”
Attorneys seek "emergency transport" to send the woman accused of killing Cummings.
Kessler, who also went by the alias Jennifer Sybert, was briefly placed in psychiatric confinement at Florida State Hospital in July after Circuit Judge James Daniel found her incompetent to stand trial. But in March, Daniel ruled Kessler was mentally competent, saying that while she may be a psychopath, she is not delusional.
Currently, because of a Department of Children and Families order, patients are not being accepted at state psychiatric hospitals due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not clear from the filing if Kessler will be allowed to move to a state hospital.
Kessler, 51, is accused of killing Joleen Cummings, a 34-year-old mother of three who was last seen on Mother’s Day in 2018.