FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2012 file photo, Elzbieta Plackowska, who is charged with fatally stabbing her 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old girl she was babysitting on Oct. 30, in Naperville, Ill., arrives in a DuPage County courtroom for her arraignment in Wheaton, Ill. On Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017, a judge found Plackowska guilty in the stabbing deaths after a bench trial. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, Pool, File)
Republished September 27, 2017 - 5:24 PM
Original Publication Date September 27, 2017 - 10:21 AM
WHEATON, Ill. - A judge has found a suburban Chicago woman guilty of murder in the fatal stabbings of her 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old girl she was babysitting.
Elzbieta Plackowska (elz-BEE'-tah plah-KOW'-skuh) was found guilty Wednesday by DuPage County Judge Robert Miller after a bench trial.
Defence attorneys contended the 45-year-old Plackowska was suffering a psychotic break when she killed the children on Oct. 30, 2012, inside the girl's home in Naperville.
During closing arguments, defence attorney Kristen Nedval said Plackowska loved the children and wouldn't have killed them "if she knew what she was doing."
But State's Attorney Bob Berlin referred to Plackowska's comments to investigators following her arrest. She told them, "I'm not supposed to, but I have to." Berlin said that indicated she knew what she was doing was wrong.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017