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)
PITTSBURGH – A prosecutor says a Pennsylvania woman accused of drowning her two young sons in a bathtub had tried to kill the boys before.
An Allegheny County prosecutor made that claim in opening statements of the bench trial of Laurel Schlemmer. The 43-year-old McCandless woman 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.
Schlemmer's attorney didn't make an opening statement. But in a pretrial discussion with the judge, he made clear that he'll try to prove Schlemmer was insane or operating under diminished mental capacity.
The prosecutor says Schlemmer left Daniel in a hot vehicle in 2009, then ran over both boys with her van about a year before drowning them.
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