Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 3 Shocking Updates In Woman Accused of Casting Spells and Cooking Body Parts

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A woman is now charged in the horrific murder and dismemberment of her mother after a man said she was casting spells on him hours earlier. I have the disturbing updates about Toralina Fields and what she's also accused of doing to a dog. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. The case of Trudy Fields, a mother from Kentucky who was murdered and dismembered, is so incredibly sad.

Starting point is 00:00:35 And the more we find out, the worse it gets. Fields's daughter, Toralina Fields, is now charged with murdering her, dismembering her, and cooking some of her remains on a stove at the home that they shared in Mount Olivet, Kentucky. That's between Cincinnati, Ohio and Lexington, Kentucky. When I first told you about this, the autopsy was underway on what was believed to be Trudy Fields' remains. That autopsy is now complete, and that led to Toralina being charged with the murder of her mother. And now we're also learning from the grand jury indictment that prosecutors believe that Toralina Fields also tortured and killed a dog.

Starting point is 00:01:14 The grand jury in Robertson County, Kentucky, indicted Toralina on a number of charges, including murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, torturing of a dog with serious physical injury or death, and obstructing governmental operations. It all started last Wednesday, October 9th, at the Fields' home on Briarley Ridge Road in Mount Olivet, Kentucky. A contractor called Kentucky State Police after finding what he believed to be Trudy Fields' dismembered body in the backyard. The contractor told police that he and his partner had been to the home the day before to do some work and that Toralina Fields

Starting point is 00:01:50 was casting spells on them and being confrontational. Troopers said the contractor had last seen Toralina's mother the evening before around 6.30 p.m. He said that she went with him and his partner to the property gate and appeared to lock it behind them as they left. They returned the next day and found what appeared to be Trudy Fields' body in the backyard and called 911. Troopers found an absolutely grisly scene. According to a citation, troopers observed a dismembered body lying in the grass behind the residence. In close proximity of the body is a bloodstained mattress. Troopers observed blood on the back porch in the threshold of the back door.

Starting point is 00:02:31 Also on the back porch, troopers observed a bloodstained wooden stick and another bloodstained mattress. Drag marks in the grass leading from the residence to the body were observed. Here's Trooper David Young with details about how they tried to get Toralina Fields to come out of the house. They set up a perimeter at that time and had other units come in to secure the residents around the residents and then a search warrant for the property was obtained. Our special response team was activated and responded to the scene to execute the search warrant due to the circumstances with the body in the backyard that was obviously deceased. They, after getting the search warrant, attempted several times to

Starting point is 00:03:18 make contact via PA to anyone inside the residence. They did not have any luck with that. They did see somebody in the residence. Eventually, after quite a while attempting to get the person to come out on their own, made entry, did find a female in the residence and took her into custody without incident and removed her. Now, the citation offers more details about efforts to get Toralina to come out of that house. Upon making entry into the residence, the female subject, Toralina Mayfields, was the only individual located inside. Toralina refused to exit the residence when multiple commands were given. CS gas was deployed by SRT. After multiple volleys of CS gas and conversing with Toralina using a robot, Toralina was removed from the residence without further incident.

Starting point is 00:04:12 Toralina appeared to have blood on her face, hands, and clothing. The indictment offers more details about how Trudy Fields died. It states Toralina caused the death of Trudy Fields by shooting her in the head with a firearm and stabbing her multiple times, that at the time she was not acting under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse, and the force that the defendant used was unlawful. That last part is important because prosecutors are basically saying they don't believe Toralina Fields' actions were caused by some sort of extreme emotional issue, although police had said they believed she was under the

Starting point is 00:04:50 influence of drugs. Toralina Fields is also charged with abuse of a corpse. The indictment says, when she intentionally treated the corpse of Trudy Fields in a way that would outrage ordinary family sensibilities by mutilating, decapitating, dismembering, and eviscerating the corpse of Trudy Fields and placing her head, hands, feet, and forearms in a pot in the oven and heating them until they were charred. Family members of Toralina Fields and Trudy Fields were in court on Monday as Toralina was scheduled to make an appearance, but she did not appear on the video feed as expected. Even though she has been indicted this morning,

Starting point is 00:05:26 she's not been served. And so just out of precaution, the request is to set up for a preliminary hearing until she has been served with the indictment. Then I will make an applicable motion once that has been served and we come back for whatever the date is for the preliminary. A deputy at the jail was standing by ready to bring Fields in to answer to the charges. But because she had not been formally served with the indictment, the attorney representing her at the proceeding entered a plea on her behalf,

Starting point is 00:05:54 and her appearance was waived. And yes, what in turn after the plea? The family members told WLWT in Cincinnati that the woman in the mugshot was not the Toralina they knew, and that Toralina Fields had actually lived in California for a time, appearing in some films. They weren't even aware that she had returned to Kentucky. Right now, Toralina Fields is scheduled to be back in court next week. I want to tell you about a sponsor of Crime Fix. It's called Upside. Upside

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Starting point is 00:07:33 And I was thinking the same thing before we started talking about this, that you've been doing this long enough and you feel like you've seen it all. And then you hear about a case like this. It really is remarkable in its violence. And then just, I guess, curious is maybe the word I would use or maybe a wrong word. But it just fascinates you to see someone who would have, I think, a mental break like this to commit this kind of a crime against their own mother. And then the dog too, it boggles your mind to think about what was going through this young person's head in these moments. It is absolutely beyond the pale. And you know what's so upsetting to me about this, Josh, is the fact that the handyman, the repairman, the contractor had been there the day before at like 630 in the evening. The next day, around, you know, 1230 or so, you know, 911 is called.

Starting point is 00:08:34 The contractor told the police she was casting spells on us the day before and being really confrontational. But, you know, they left. They did their work. They left, they did their work, they left whatever. Mom walked them out, closed the gate at the end of the driveway, and then went up to the house. And then presumably, all of this awful stuff unfolded from there. So it kind of makes you think mom maybe wasn't fearful or thought she had some level of control over her daughter since mother and daughter are living at the home together. Absolutely. And I don't think anyone saw

Starting point is 00:09:10 anything close to this on the horizon either. What's funny about the indictment is the way that they've charged this, they even put in their indictment that they don't believe the prosecution, the people, the government doesn't believe that she was under some sort of mental crisis at the time. And I believe they're charging it that way to preclude any kind of mental defense in this case. But I don't see it being handled any other way by her defense. Clearly, I'm no psychologist, but this is clearly someone who is suffering from some sort of mental break or episode that, like you said, can be behaving in a perhaps bizarre way. But then for that to turn towards such great violence that we've seen in this case is just really remarkable. Well, Kentucky State Police had said in their initial citation, they believe drugs were a factor. And I think you would have to concede that. I mean, you would have to almost think that drugs would have to be a factor for somebody to do something this heinous. I mean, we're talking about organs being in a mattress, a dismembered body being taken outside. I mean, it's so horrific. And then body parts in an oven in a pot that is still warm to the touch. It's so disgusting.

Starting point is 00:10:27 Plus how they say her mother died, Trudy Fields. You would almost think that somebody would have to be on some type of crazy meth bender or had taken a bad dose of something for this to be going on. Yeah. I mean, drugs is one thing, but there's an epidemic of drug use in this country and you don't see this type of violence. So something else is at play here. And like you pointed out, the murder itself, putting aside the gross and bizarre behavior afterwards with how she dismembers her mother's body and cooks the body

Starting point is 00:11:06 parts and the abuse towards the dog. The murder itself shows incredible overkill. We're talking about using a gun and then stabbing her several times. Again, I think drugs likely did play a role, but there was something else at play here going on inside of her head to cause her to act in this way. Most definitely. And the whole thing about casting spells as well is so crazy. I think that's all we know is what it said in the citation. We don't really have any other information about that. Just the mugshot alone, she's sitting there, she's in the green turtle suit. That's so she doesn't harm herself. She's sitting there and her eyes are closed. You know, it's just kind of something else. And then she doesn't show up for court, you know, obviously waives her appearance for whatever reason.

Starting point is 00:11:53 And the judge enters a plea, a not guilty plea on her behalf. Of course, this is all procedural. But, you know, yikes. I mean, why? I feel like I'm seeing a lot of defendants lately waving their appearances and not coming to court. I mean, is this a common thing? I feel like I'm seeing it more and more. It's not common. And it's something that the courts like to avoid where they can, because we want these things on the record.

Starting point is 00:12:18 We want it on the record in open court that somebody has understood and appreciated the proceedings and the charges against them and entered their own plea of not guilty, when you start to see this type of behavior where somebody is not participating in the court proceedings, refusing to come to court, refusing to acknowledge what's taking place, that's usually the precursor to someone being declared incompetent to stand trial. I wouldn't be surprised if that's usually the precursor to someone being declared incompetent to stand trial. So I wouldn't be surprised if that's the direction that all of this heads.

Starting point is 00:12:51 Given the violence and the bizarre circumstances leading up to, including the murder and afterwards, and then her behavior in court, I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up in some sort of mental proceeding before it ever heads to trial, even if it does. Well, competency, they can restore that. They can take somebody and put them in the hospital, give them psychiatric medication, things of that nature, as you know. But as a prosecutor in this case, Josh, I'm assuming you throw the book or you want to throw the book at this person because of just how heinous this is to send some sort of message, no matter what the motivation or the other factors might be influencing this behavior. Then obviously, as a defense attorney, you're going to do whatever you can.

Starting point is 00:13:38 I don't know what you do as a defense attorney because this is I mean, this is a lot. There's a lot there other than saying maybe she does have a mental health issue, but it just, we, I think we need more information, but there's just no excusing this type of behavior. No, you're absolutely right. The prosecutors are going to proceed full steam ahead. I mean, they do have some gatekeeping responsibilities as far as, you know, you don't want to charge someone with a crime when there's clearly some sort of defense present, if it is a mental health defense. But that, like you said, is really the job of her defense attorneys to outline that and bring those defenses

Starting point is 00:14:17 forward. And I can't see this going any other way, but that type of defense. This isn't a whodunit. This isn't a case of self-defense. This is clearly someone who acted of their own volition. Now it'll just be determined on whether or not they were suffering from some sort of mental duress that caused them to not appreciate the consequences of their actions in that moment. It will be interesting to see how it proceeds. Her bail has been set at $1.5 million. I don't think anybody will be posting that anytime soon. Josh Ritter, thank you so much as always.

Starting point is 00:14:50 Thank you for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 3 Shocking Updates In Woman Accused of Casting Spells and Cooking Body Parts

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