Defendant initially pled not guilty to all charges and denied the special circumstances allegation. She later entered additional pleas of not guilty on all charges by reason of insanity. In the first phase of a bifurcated trial on guilt and sanity, the jury acquitted defendant of first degree murder, but found her guilty of three counts of second degree murder and three counts of assault resulting in the death of a child under age eight. After defendant waived a jury trial for the sanity phase, the court found her not guilty by reason of insanity.
The trial court sentenced defendant to three concurrent 25-years-to-life terms on the murder convictions, and three concurrent 15-years-to-life terms on the convictions for assault resulting in the death of a child under age eight. The court further ordered defendant committed to the Department of Mental Health at Napa State Hospital to serve these terms...
Her I.Q. tested at 70—at the bottom of the borderline range, one point above the mildly retarded range.
According to Dr. Good, defendant's schizophrenia manifested itself in her delusional belief she had a special relationship with God, and in auditory hallucinations God was speaking to her...
In Dr. Good's view, defendant understood in only a very limited sense that God was asking her to kill her children. Someone who is not delusional would define death as the cessation of life. But for defendant, death was simply a way of conveyance to heaven, which she believed was a real place in which her children would still be alive. She told Dr. Good she believed they were chasing dogs, going to school, living in a house, and possibly being taken care of by their great-grandmother or by God. She spoke of heaven as a real, concrete place...
The defense called as a witness Dr. Gilbert Villela, who treated defendant at San Francisco General Hospital following her arrest. Dr. Villela diagnosed defendant as a paranoid schizophrenic. He reported she was experiencing visual as well as auditory hallucinations. She saw the Virgin Mary at a hospital in Florida and saw Jesus and Jehovah on a bus during her return trip from Florida. Dr. Villela testified defendant spoke of heaven as being an actual place; it had cars, and reverends and priests could take a plane to visit heaven. During her hospitalization, defendant wrote a card to God which she asked hospital staff to deliver to heaven.
