DENVER—A mother who told police she was Christ and her three children were the anti-Christ has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of trying to drown the children.
Brenda Hernandez, 24, was ordered Monday to stand trial on three counts of attempted first-degree murder. Prosecutors say she held the 2-, 3- and 7-year-old children under water in a bathtub in February, but all survived.
Police said the oldest child told investigators his mother wanted him to help drown his two younger sisters and to help her kill his aunt.
Police say the aunt, Elizabeth Rodriguez, may have interrupted Hernandez’s alleged attempt to drown the children when she knocked on Hernandez’s apartment door and then called 911.
On Monday, officer Gabriel Jordan testified that when he went to the apartment, he heard shouting, and Hernandez answered the door wet and naked and appearing angry.
She repeatedly said “the children were the anti-Christ and the children needed to die. We need to kill them. They are the devil,” Jordan testified.
She also begged officers to shoot the family, Jordan said.
Denver District Judge Anne Mansfield ordered Hernandez to be evaluated at the state hospital.
———
Information from: The Denver Post,
