BEDFORD—Brittany Medina appeared in Lawrence County Superior Court I and entered a not-guilty plea.
Medina faces two counts of murder and two counts of child neglect, causing death. She is being held in the Lawrence County Jail without bail.
Chief Public Defender Tim Sledd represents Medina, and Prosecutor Sam Arp represents the state.
On Tuesday, September 26, at 4:00 p.m., Medina walked into the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department and reported she had just killed her children. She told police she drowned them in the bathroom. Medina was read her Miranda rights and was detained. She then gave Detective Ramos the key to her home.
The bodies of three-year-old Jackson and one-year-old Madelyn Shelton were found in the bathtub of their home.
Medina told police on Monday, September 25th, she had consumed a half gram of Xanax, a Suboxone strip, and snorted three lines of cocaine.
On Tuesday, September 26, her boyfriend Ryan Shelton awakened to go to work and woke Brittany up at 6:30 a.m. Medina told police she made breakfast and put on a cartoon for the kids to watch. At approximately 2:30 p.m., she told police she heard voices in her head indicating that she needed to send her children to Heaven that day or someone would come and place her and her children in a dark hole.
Medina told police the voices indicated that people would torture all three until the end of their lives if she didn’t send the children to Heaven that day.
Medina indicated she then went into the bathroom closest to the master bedroom and began to fill the bathtub with water. Medina told police she knew she was going to drown her children to send them to Heaven. Medina told police she took both children into the bathroom and placed one on each side of her in the bathtub. She told them she loved them, gave them kisses, and submerged both children simultaneously under the water by holding them around the neck until Jackson no longer had a pulse and both quit moving.
She exited the bathtub and went into her bedroom to put on dry clothes. She returned to the bathroom and said, “The water was completely still, and Jackson and Maddy were lying in the bathtub, not moving.”
Medina indicated she got into her vehicle and drove to the Sheriff’s Department.
Funeral services for the children will be on Tuesday, October 3, at 11:00 a.m. at the Mitchell Church of Christ in Mitchell, entombment will follow in Cresthaven Memory Gardens. Visitation will be from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Monday at the Mitchell Church of Christ.
