Inmate Name: Cindy Countess
Charge: Murder in the Second Degree
Sentence: 30 years
Prison: Fluvanna Correctional Center in Virginia

Cindy Countess, the fourth of five children, was born to Edna Dooley in 1954. As a young woman she was very active and talented, winning trophies for skating. Her older sister Naomi describes Cindy as a bright and vivacious young woman with a zeal for life. Cindy was an excellent student and graduated high school in the early 70's.

Right after graduating, Cindy married for the first time. Unfortunately the marriage fell apart and ended soon after the wedding. Naomi says Cindy never really recovered from this relationship or the divorce. In the mid 1970's Cindy moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a country western singer. It was Cindy's father who pioneered a career in country western radio from 1930-1950. In Nashville Cindy was very successful in finding gigs in commercials, music videos, movies and modeling. It was during this time that Cindy met her second husband, Danny. Cindy and Danny lived in Nashville until the 1990's when the couple decided to move to Las Vegas. There they continued to work steadily in the entertainment industry.

In 1997 her father's health began to rapidly decline. He suffered from several strokes and eventually became bedridden. Being the only child in the area, the care of their parents fell upon Cindy's eldest sibling, Naomi. In 1999 Cindy left her life in Las Vegas to return to Virginia to assist Naomi with their parents. Cindy would take her mother to the nursing home to visit her father every day. She would perform physical therapy on her father for hours at a time, and because of her extended trips home Cindy began to see her husband less and less. At one point during this troubling time Cindy was hospitalized for exhaustion, stress, and depression.

After her father's death in 2001 Cindy moved back to Virginia to care for her ill mother full time. Cindy says her mother, Edna, was displaying symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder and senile dementia. Cindy and Naomi tried to find more adequate care for their mother but the lack of financial resources forced them to care for their mother without any outside assistance. By this point, Cindy was exhausted and struggled to meet her mother's unrelenting demands. Cindy was then hospitalized again, this time for severe depression and was prescribed Paxil. After being released from the hospital, Cindy went back to being the primary caregiver for her ill mother. The situation quickly declined for both mother and daughter.

According to Cindy and Naomi, their mother Edna began stealing and hiding prescription medications, including Cindy's Paxil. Cindy claims to have gone through withdrawals from lack of the anti-depressant and on May 2, 2002 Cindy found a Paxil pill in the bottom of her purse, and took it. She then put her mother to bed and allegedly consumed two drinks. At a point in the evening Edna and Cindy accidentally met in the bathroom. Because of Cindy's withdrawal from Paxil she claims she was unclear of exactly what happened next, but figured she told her mother that she was "dog tired, and stressed out." According to police a violent scuffle broke out. Cindy claims she is still unable to recall the details of what happened, but the fight ended with blood on her shoes, bruises on Cindy's body and Edna dead.

The coroner's report cited the cause of death as "multiple blunt force trauma,? the worst of which resulted in a crushed chest and multiple broken ribs.

Cindy's attorney formulated a unique defense claiming "care taker burnout" and involuntary intoxication because of the drug withdrawal as the reasons why Cindy should not be convicted of her mother's murder. The judge saw these factors differently and claimed that Cindy's own defense effectively proved the conditions necessary for first-degree murder as she was not taking the medication properly.

In April 2004 Cindy Countess was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of her mother with 14 of those to serve and then 10 years on intensely supervised probation.