NASHUA – Katlyn Marin was visibly upset, and cried occasionally, as first one police officer, then others, spoke with her in a room next to where firefighters and paramedics worked feverishly to revive her 3-year-old daughter on Nov. 25, 2014.

But, three of those police officers said last week, never did they get the impression that Marin didn’t understand any of their questions, nor did they notice anything that might indicate that the PTSD, ADHD, depression and anxiety from which she reportedly suffers affected her ability to comprehend the series of events that began when Marin called 911 because her daughter wasn’t breathing.

Marin’s emotional and mental state during the afternoon and evening of Nov. 25 was one of several topics debated during Friday’s hearing on defense motions to suppress evidence that led police to file alternate charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter against the 26-year-old Marin several weeks after the death of 3-year-old Brielle Eternity Gage.

The daylong hearing, held in Hillsborough County Superior Court South, addressed several motions in which Nashua attorneys Justin Shepherd and Paul Garrity argue that police interrogated Marin before reading her her Miranda rights, unlawfully seized her cellphone on a warrant that was too vague, prohibited her to retrieve a change of clothes from another room in her apartment and eventually told her she had to leave the apartment because it was a crime scene, according to the motions and the attorneys’ testimony.

Those directives, Shepherd said, gave the impression that Marin was in custody, even though police said she wasn’t and was free to terminate the discussions at any point.

Nashua police officer Josue Santiago, one of the first to arrive at 14 Oak St. after the midday 911 call, said firefighters and paramedics were working on Brielle on a second-floor landing. "There were space issues … I asked (Marin) to go into a bedroom to make more room for the medics and also so I could speak with her," Santiago said. She did so, bringing with her a boy around age 4 and a 1-year-old, he added.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin, who is prosecuting the case with Assistant Attorney General Patrick Queenan, asked Santiago if he pressured Marin, restrained her or threatened to arrest her, to all of which Santiago answered "no." "Did she tell you she has ADHD, depression, or any conditions?" Strelzin asked. Santiago again said no.

Shepherd reversed the questioning, asking Santiago if he asked Marin if she had any such conditions, to which he said no. Santiago said he didn’t recall whether Marin appeared "panicked" or "upset." He didn’t recall if he asked Marin for her phone or took it from her, according to his answers to Shepherd’s questioning. "I might have asked for it," Santiago said.

But he did eventually take the phone, he said. "I was told she wasn’t allowed to use her phone," Santiago told Shepherd, adding that he didn’t recall which police officer gave him that information.

Marin, according to Santiago and later testimony by Sgt. Jennifer Greene, wanted to go to the hospital to be with Brielle, but they discouraged her, saying the doctors were doing what they could and that police needed her to provide them with crucial information on Brielle’s medical history.

Capt. David Bailey, the other officer to testify Friday, said under questioning by Strelzin that he spoke briefly with Marin, telling her that "her daughter had medical issues" and "we need to know what happened to help treat her," he said of Brielle.

Strelzin asked Bailey how Marin responded, to which Bailey replied, "She said she doesn’t trust the police … she was crying, she wanted to go to the hospital … I told her she couldn’t see (Brielle) because doctors were working on her."

Bailey also told Marin that he was assigning officers to take four of Marin’s other children – two from the apartment and two from their school – to the police department for safety purposes. When Marin asked to change clothes because her daughter had urinated on her, Bailey said no because, he said, "I wasn’t comfortable with her going to the third floor" to get clean clothes.

Later, Bailey said, he told Marin she’d need to leave the apartment because "we now had a death investigation and we’d be holding the house as a crime scene." Officers remained at the house for the next 38 hours, he added.

Greene, meanwhile, said Marin’s two children were placed in Greene’s cruiser for transport to the station. Police urged Marin to also go to the station, although they testified that they didn’t tell her she had to. They made a car available for her, Greene said, but Marin chose to enter the car her children were in "and sit between them in the back seat," Greene said.

En route, Greene said, she asked Marin what happened, and Marin "started talking" in a non-confrontational manner. "She explained everything that happened from the previous day until then," Greene said. Once at the police station, "she continued talking" in the family lounge area as her children played with toys, the detective added.

Marin said Brielle hadn’t been feeling well the previous day, and the next morning she appeared to have a seizure, according to Greene. "She said she picked (Brielle) up, slipped and fell down the stairs … and that she fell down the stairs a second time with Brielle."

Greene said in response to one of Strelzin’s questions that there was no uniformed police officer "standing guard" outside the family lounge, as Marin had claimed in her motion.

Shepherd and Garrity contend that Marin was "under mental duress" in the hours after Brielle was rushed to the hospital. Further, they argue that the wording of the search warrant fell short of establishing probable cause, and that the warrant was drafted before state medical examiner Thomas Andrew released his ruling that Brielle died from blunt-force trauma "consistent with battered child syndrome" and that the manner of death was homicide.

But Strelzin and Queenan argued that Santiago and Bailey acted within the scope of the fourth amendment when they told Marin she couldn’t have access to her phone. Strelzin said such "temporary restraint" is allowed because the officers had reason to believe the phone contained information that could be helpful to an investigation, and therefore they wanted to keep Marin from potentially deleting any information.

Judge Charles Temple, who presided over the hearing, said he needs time to review the day’s testimony before he issues rulings on the pending motions.

Marin’s trial is currently scheduled to begin in August in the Nashua court.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6443, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.