Brittany Medina (Lawrence County Sheriff”s Department) and her children, Jackson and Maddie (via Facebook)
A 35-year-old woman in Indiana will likely spend the rest of her life behind bars for killing her 3-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl, intentionally drowning the children in her bathtub so she could “send them to heaven.” Brittany Medina on Wednesday formally pleaded guilty but mentally ill to two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death in the slayings of Madelyn and Jackson Shelton, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Lawrence County Superior Court Judge John M. Plummer III, who presided over the change of plea hearing, wrote that he would take the plea agreement “under advisement pending sentencing” and ordered a pre-sentence investigation report to be submitted to the court next month. If accepted, it appears the terms of the plea agreement would result in two counts of murder being dismissed.
The judge set Medina’s sentencing hearing for 9 a.m. on Oct. 23.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Medina walked into the Lawrence County Jail at 4:50 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2023, and told authorities she had just killed her children. After officers read her Miranda rights, Medina provided a key to the residence and “stated she killed her two children ages one and three and drowned them in the bathroom.”
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Upon arriving at the home in the 1200 block of West Brook Street, authorities said they found Madelyn and Jackson dead in the bathroom of Medina’s bedroom.
According to her own statements, Medina took half a gram of Xanax, a suboxone strip, and snorted three lines of cocaine the night before she killed the children. After her boyfriend went to work early the following morning, Medina allegedly made breakfast and put on cartoons for the kids.
Around 2:30 p.m., Medina said she began hearing voices telling her she “needed to send her children to heaven today” or someone would “come and take her children and her and place them in a dark hole,” according to the affidavit’s summary of what she said.
“Medina advised the voices indicate the people would torture all three until the end of their lives if she didn’t send the children to heaven today,” the affidavit said. “Medina indicated she then went into the bathroom closest to the master bedroom and began to fill the bathtub with water.”
Medina allegedly “told her children she loved them and gave them kisses” before simultaneously holding them underwater by their necks until they stopped moving.
“I ended up drowning them,” the suspect allegedly told cops.
Asked if she knew her actions would result in the deaths of her children, Medina allegedly replied in the affirmative and reiterated that she started the bath to “send them to heaven.”
After the drownings, Medina said she went into the bedroom and put on dry clothes and checked to make sure the children were “not moving,” telling investigators that “the water was completely still.” She then drove to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department and turned herself in.
Responding police entered the residence around 7 p.m. and found both children in the tub, Jackson without clothes and Madelyn wearing a “flowered onesie.”
