Arizona Mother Accused Of Poisoning Children Asks Judge For Death Penalty
SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — An Arizona woman accused of poisoning her two children and leaving their bodies in a Santa Ana hotel room appeared in court by video Tuesday and asked the judge to promise her the death penalty.
Arraignment was postponed for Marilyn Kay Edge, 42, of Phoenix, accused of poisoning her 9-year-old daughter and her 13-year-old son, who reportedly had autism.
The comments came as Judge Craig Robison attempted to get the suspect to waive her right to a speedy trial after her lawyer requested a continuance of the arraignment.
"Only if you promise me the death penalty," she said from an Orange County jail holding cell. She repeated her request for the death penalty a total of three times.
The children's bodies were found at 9 a.m. Saturday inside a third-floor hotel room at the Hampton Inn & Suites in the 2700 block of Hotel Terrace.
Police were alerted to the scene after Edge crashed her car in Costa Mesa in an apparent suicide attempt.
"Well, the only death penalty she was successful at executing was that of her children," Senior Deputy District Attorney Sonia Balleste said when asked about Edge's request. "So I find it ironic that now she's in court asking for the same."
Edge attempted to crash the car into an electrical box, but hit the surrounding concrete pylons instead, according to police, who say she then refused to get out of the vehicle.
"Apparently, she had a propane tank inside her car," Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. "She drove her vehicle at a high rate of speed."
"She had some type of device around her neck" and was trying to choke herself, according to Bertagna.
Costa Mesa police subsequently smashed a window and extricated her from the car.
Edge was taken to a Newport Beach hospital where she was treated and released before being questioned by detectives and booked on suspicion of murder.
"This is as bad as they come," said Balleste. "It is a cruel, cold, calculated murder of two innocent lives."
Authorities say a judge had ordered Edge to return the children to their father in Georgia, where the family had lived before the parents' divorce.
Court records from the state reveal that Marilyn Edge committed "extreme parental alienation" by keeping the children from their father, Anthony Edge. As a result, a judge awarded him primary custody of the children.
Edge will remain jailed without bail pending her arraignment, which was rescheduled for Oct. 25.
