A Montgomery County judge will decide as early as the week of Aug. 10 whether Catherine Hoggle can pursue an insanity defense in the murders of her two young children, a move prosecutors say was filed seven months too late.
Hoggle is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob Hoggle, who were last seen in her care on Sept. 7, 2014, in Clarksburg. Their bodies have never been found.
At a hearing on Friday, Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy argued that Hoggle's defense team missed the legal deadline to file a "not criminally responsible" plea and failed to show good cause for the delay. He asked the judge to deny it outright.
McCarthy said the late filing would "absolutely" require the trial date to be pushed back, according to NBC4 Washington's reporting on the hearing.
What the defense is seeking
Hoggle's public defenders, Meghan Ellis Brennan and Tatiana David, filed the NCR plea on July 6 in Montgomery County Circuit Court. In their filing, they asserted Hoggle "because of a mental disorder, lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of the alleged conduct or conform that conduct to the requirements of law," according to WTOP.
The defense also requested a bifurcated trial. Under that structure, jurors would first determine whether a crime occurred. Only if they found Hoggle committed the acts would a second phase address whether she understood the criminality of her actions.
Under Maryland law, the burden falls on the defendant to prove she was not criminally responsible. The plea does not constitute an admission of guilt.
A case stretching nearly 12 years
Hoggle was arrested three days after her children disappeared in September 2014, initially on charges of child neglect, obstruction of justice and child abduction. Murder charges were first filed in 2017 but later dismissed after she was repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial. She spent years committed to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center. Her relatives have said she has schizophrenia.
In the summer of 2025, Hoggle was discharged from the hospital and placed in a group home. Prosecutors learned of her release, and she was arrested on Aug. 1, 2025, in Kent County. A Montgomery County grand jury subsequently indicted her on two counts of first-degree murder. In December 2025, Judge James Bonifant ruled Hoggle competent to stand trial.
What's next
The murder trial is scheduled to begin Monday, Oct. 19, in Montgomery County Circuit Court. If the judge permits the NCR plea, additional mental health evaluations could follow, and the trial date may shift. The hearing expected the week of Aug. 10 should resolve whether the insanity defense moves forward.
