Jury rejects insanity plea

12/19/2001

The Associated Press

WHEATON, Ill. - A 44-year-old woman who smothered her three young children after tucking them into bed was found guilty of murder Wednesday by a jury that rejected her claim of insanity.

Marilyn Lemak admitted killing Thomas, 3, Emily, 6, and Nicholas, 7, in March 1999, but defense and prosecutors were split on her state of mind.

The jury, which deliberated about nine hours Tuesday and Wednesday, rejected two alternate verdict - guilty but mentally ill or not guilty by reason of insanity. The emotional case lasted three weeks.

In closing arguments Tuesday, defense attorney Jack Donahue referred to the children as three angels and called the killings "despicable and monstrous acts." But he asked jurors to concentrate on Lemak's mental state.

Standing over Lemak, who had her head down and appeared to be trembling slightly, the attorney said: "Marilyn Lemak, as she sits there, remains trapped in the wreckage of her own mind."

Prosecutors say Lemak knew what she was doing when she killed the children, contending she wanted to punish her physician husband, David, over their pending divorce and because he had started seeing another woman.

They called Lemak's defense "psychobabble" and ridiculed her claim that she wanted to kill her children and herself so they could be reunited in a better place, calling it "a bunch of baloney." Lemak did not react visibly as the verdicts were read.

Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against Lemak. DuPage County Judge George Bakalis will sentence her at a later date. She also could be sentenced to life in prison.

Authorities say Lemak fed her children peanut butter laced with her anti-anxiety medication, tucked them into bed, sang them a lullaby and then smothered them with her bare hands. She later slashed her wrists with a knife and stabbed a photograph of her estranged husband with his new girlfriend.

DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett led the prosecution team in a rare courtroom appearance. During closings, he said Lemak was a "methodical, controlling, manipulative woman."

"These murders were not the byproduct of mental illness or depression (but the actions of) a very angry, very jealous and very manipulative woman," Birkett said.

But the defense said she was trapped in a downward spiral of depression.