Julie Schenecker, center, is led into a Tampa, Fla. courtroom for the first day of jury selection for her trial today. Shenecker is being tried for the January 28, 2011 murder of her two children Calyx and Beau Schenecker, her 16-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son.By TAMARA LUSH
Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. – A military wife whose husband was deployed to the Middle East shot her 13-year-old son twice in the head for talking back, authorities said, then returned home and shot her 16-year-old daughter in the face as she studied.
Now she’s on trial, and whether she spends life in prison hinges on a key question for jurors: After years of profound mental illness, was she unable to realize what she did was wrong, as her defense attorneys say? Or did she plan the January 2011 killings over at least several days, as prosecutors say, complaining at one point that the three-day wait to buy a gun would “delay the massacre”?
Jury selection began this morning in Julie Scheneker’s case. She is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.