LAWRENCE CO. — Brittany Medina is facing two counts of murder and two counts of child neglect causing death after a tragic incident involving her young children. She is currently held without bail at the Lawrence County Jail.
Medina’s competency to stand trial has been questioned, with evaluations submitted to the court on Tuesday, September 17. A competency hearing is set for October 31 at 9 a.m. before Judge John Plummer III in Lawrence County Superior Court I. If Medina is competent, her trial will begin on March 5 at 8:30 a.m.
Represented by Chief Public Defender Tim Sledd, Medina faces prosecution from Sam Arp, who presents the case against her.
The investigation began on September 26 when Medina walked into the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department and confessed to killing her children, three-year-old Jackson and one-year-old Madelyn Shelton. She claimed she had drowned them in the bathtub of their home. Following her confession, she was read her Miranda rights and subsequently detained. Medina provided Detective Ramos with a key to her residence, where the bodies were discovered.
Reports indicate that Medina had taken half of a Xanax and a Suboxone strip and snorted three lines of cocaine before the incident. On September 26, her boyfriend, Ryan Shelton, awakened her at 6:30 a.m. Medina claimed she made breakfast and put on a cartoon for the children. However, around 2:30 p.m., she reported hearing voices urging her to send her children to “Heaven” or face dire consequences.
According to her statements to the police, Medina believed the voices warned that failure to act would lead to torture for herself and her children. She described taking both children into the bathroom, placing them in the bathtub, and submerging them under the water until they stopped moving.
After the incident, Medina stated she changed into dry clothes and drove to the Sheriff’s Department to report what had occurred.
