An American woman is accused of murdering her two youngest children A prosecutor in a London court said a woman in Colorado last December had told her 11-year-old daughter, who survived the attack, that God had forced her to do it.
The girl begged for her life Kimberly Singler Prosecutor Joel Smith said the defendant attacked her with a knife and cut her again despite the girl's pleas for mercy.
The chilling details emerged as Singler was fighting extradition to the United States at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
Defense attorney Edward Fitzgerald said Singler denies attacking his children and he is concerned the statement his daughter made to police was obtained under duress.
Singler should not be extradited from the United Kingdom because, if he is convicted of first-degree murder in the US state of Colorado, where the killings took place, he would face life imprisonment without parole — a sentence that violates European human rights law, Fitzgerald argued on Friday.
Singler, 36, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting and stabbing of his 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, and one count of attempted murder for harming his older daughter.
Additional charges have also been leveled against him because the children were below 12 years of age. Apart from this, an additional charge of assault has also been leveled against him.
Fitzgerald, who represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his lengthy battle to be extradited to face espionage charges in the US, argued that life without parole would be inhumane as it offered no prospect of release, even if he were rehabilitated.
Fitzgerald said that despite the possibility that the sentence could be pardoned by Colorado's governor, it would be tantamount to “political suicide.” He cited experts who said such a thing had never been done before.
“In Colorado, given history and political reality, there is no realistic possibility of release, no matter what progress is made,” Fitzgerald said.
“No matter how bad the crime, there must be some opportunity for release.”
As Fitzgerald was concluding his argument, Smith said he had found evidence that former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper pardoned the first-degree murder convictions of six people in 2018.
Judge John Zani then adjourned the three-day hearing until 2 December “in view of potentially significant information” to give lawyers a chance to confirm news reports about the sentence reduction and make further arguments.
Singler, who is in custodywas in the dock and spoke only to acknowledge that she understood why the hearing was being continued.
The hearing focused mainly on legal issues related to extradition.
Smith offered new details in his opening statement Wednesday.
He said Singler was in a custody battle with her ex-husband, Kevin Wentz, at the time of the killings.
He was ordered to spend more time with the children and was ordered to hand over the children to him from December 16 to 31, but he did not do so.
Shortly after midnight on December 19, Singler made an emergency call to Colorado Springs police.
Officers found the two youngest children, 7-year-old Aiden Wentz and 9-year-old Eliana “Ellie” Wentz, dead in bed together in their apartment.
Smith said he was shot and stabbed.
Singler’s older daughter, identified in court papers only by her initials, M.W., was seriously injured.
Singler was initially believed to be the victim of a burglary because he suffered a minor stab wound, police said.
“She later told police she woke up (on Dec. 18) feeling 'weird' and 'unconscious,' and that the children seemed sleepy as well,” Smith said.
“She said she suspected her ex-partner (the children's father) of killing them or plotting to have them killed. She said a 'black man' had broken into her apartment and that she had fainted.”
Singler's ex-husband, however, had solid proof, Smith said.
He was driving a truck that had GPS tracking.
The daughter, who survived the attack, had initially told the police that a man entered their house through the veranda and attacked them.
But after recovering from her wounds and moving into a foster home, she told a carer that her mother was responsible and that she had told her to lie to the police.
Smith said the girl said Singler gave the children powdered milk to drink and told them to close their eyes and took them to a children's room.
“The defendant told her that God was telling him to do it, and that the children's father would take them,” Smith said.
DNA tests on the weapons showed a mixture of the children's blood and that of their mother.
An empty bottle of sleeping pills was also found in the house.
After her daughter changed her story, police tried to arrest Singler in Colorado on December 26, but she had fled abroad.
Four days later he was arrested in London's posh Chelsea area.
