A mother accused of trying to kill her three children pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity today after a detective testified that the mother believed she was God and that her children were the anti-Christ.
Denver Detective Ken Klaus testified that Brenda Hernandez held her three children – then ages 2, 3 and 7 – underwater in the bathtub of her apartment on Feb. 10 as the children struggled to get away.
The oldest of her children told police that his mother wanted him to help drown his two younger sisters and also to help kill his “Aunt Betty.”
The boy said that as his mother dunked him under the water, she said: “Please forgive me for putting you under the water.”
Officers testified that Hernandez’s attempts to kill the children were interrupted on two occasions, first by the arrival of the children’s aunt and moments later by the arrival of the police.
The aunt, Elizabeth Rodriguez, called police after she went to her 24-year-old sister’s front door and was told that everyone needed to die.
Denver District Judge Anne Mansfield bound Hernandez over on three counts of attempted first-degree murder but ordered her evaluated at the state hospital after she entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
