Husband: Tub-drowning suspect tried to run over boys earlier

This Tuesday, April 1, 2014 booking photo provided by the Allegheny County Police shows Laurel Michelle Schlemmer, who is accused of drowning her two young sons in a bathtub. In opening statements of of Schlemmer's bench trial a prosecutor said Schlemmer, the 43-year-old McCandless, Pa., woman, who is charged with killing 6-year-old Daniel and 3-year-old Luke in April 2014 so she could focus on raising their older brother, had tried to kill the boys before. (AP Photo/Allegheny County Police) (The Associated Press)

The husband of a Pennsylvania woman on trial for allegedly drowning their two youngest sons in a bathtub has testified she wanted to surrender to police for purposely running over the boys the year before — but he talked her out of it.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://bit.ly/2n4i1RI ) reports Mark Schlemmer testified Thursday in his wife's trial on charges she drowned their sons in April 2014.

The defense says 43-year-old Laurel Schlemmer was too mentally ill to know what she was doing.

But prosecutors hope to convince an Allegheny County judge that the McCandless woman was bent on killing 6-year-old Daniel and 3-year-old Luke so she could focus her attention on their older brother, who was 7 at the time.

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Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com