MANNHEIM, Germany – A U.S. soldier convicted of murdering her two children by drowning them in the bathtub was sentenced to life in prison Friday by a military judge.
The verdict allowed parole after 20 years for Spc. Lillie Morgan, 22, an Army finance clerk. She was found guilty Thursday of premeditated murder in the drownings of her children Joshua, 3, and Jazmin, 2 months, at her apartment in a military housing complex in Hanau, near Frankfurt on Sept. 18, 2001.
Prosecutors charged that Morgan knew right from wrong when she held the children under water for more than three minutes each, and that she wanted to hurt a husband she believed was cheating on her. The defense argued she was mentally disturbed at the time.
Morgan, of Marksville, La., will be sent to a military prison in Miramar, Calif., to serve her sentence.
In a tearful statement to Judge Lt. Col. Stephen Henley before he read the sentence, Morgan thanked him and said: “It was a fair and just decision – I am guilty.”
“Thank you for defending my children and standing up for them,” she said to the prosecutor. “The fact is, they are gone and I am the cause.”
Finally, Morgan addressed her children, saying: “I love you, Joshua and Jazmin. I know I will see you in heaven.”
Defense attorney Capt. Tom Fleener argued during Friday’s sentencing hearing that as a mentally ill woman who killed the children she loved, Morgan was a good candidate for a sentence with the possibility of parole.
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