LONDON (AP) — A U.S. mother’s extradition fight to avoid trial in the killings of her children hit a setback Friday as new evidence appeared to undermine her argument that sending her home from the U.K. would violate her rights.
Kimberlee Singler’s attorney had argued that sending her back to the U.S. would violate European human rights law, in part, because she faces a sentence of life in prison without parole in the U.S. state of Colorado if convicted of first-degree murder. Such a sentence would be inhuman because it offers no prospect for release even if she is rehabilitated.
Singler, 36, is accused of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting and stabbings of her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, and one count of attempted murder for slashing her 11-year-old daughter with a knife. She also faces three counts of child abuse and one count of assault.
Defense lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said that despite an option for a Colorado governor to commute her sentence at some point, it was “political suicide” to do so and experts found it hadn’t been done.
But just as Fitzgerald was winding up his argument on the final day of the three-day hearing in Westminster Magistrates’ Court, prosecutor Joel Smith rose to say he had evidence that former Gov. John Hickenlooper commuted first-degree murder sentences of six men in 2018.
Judge John Zani adjourned the hearing “in light of potentially important information” until Dec. 2 to allow lawyers to confirm a news report about the commutations and provide further arguments.
Singler, who had superficial knife wounds when she was found in her Colorado Springs apartment with her children Dec. 19, was initially considered a victim in what was reported as a burglary, police said. She tried to pin the attack on her ex-husband, who she was in a custody battle with.
But her husband had a solid alibi, prosecutors said. He had been driving a truck at the time that had GPS tracking.
The daughter who survived her attack initially told police that a man who entered their home from the patio had attacked them.
But after recovering from her wounds and being transferred to a foster home, she told a caretaker her mother was the culprit.
The girl said her mom gave the children milk with a powdery substance to drink and told them to close their eyes as she guided them into her sibling’s bedroom, Smith said.
Singler cut her neck and, as the girl begged her to stop, she slashed her again. The girl said her mother had a gun.
“The defendant told her that god was telling her to do it, and that the children’s father would take them away,” Smith said.
Police found Aden Wentz, 7, and Elianna “Ellie” Wentz, 9, dead when in the apartment. Smith said the two had been shot and stabbed.
A gun, knife and empty bottles of sleeping pills were found in the house.
Singler denies attacking her children, said Fitzgerald, who represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in his long extradition fight to face espionage charges in the U.S.
Singler is concerned her daughter’s statement against her was coerced and that the crimes weren’t fully investigated, Fitzgerald said.
After her daughter changed her story, police sought to arrest Singler on Dec. 26 but she had fled. She was arrested in London’s posh Chelsea neighborhood four days later.
Singler, who is in custody, was in the dock wearing a turquoise jacket and white top. She spoke publicly only to acknowledge that she understood why the hearing was being continued.
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