Brittany Medina (Lawrence County Sheriff”s Department) and her children, Jackson and Maddie (via Facebook)
An Indiana woman, aged 35, is set to likely spend her life in prison after admitting to killing her young children, a 3-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl, by drowning them in her bathtub with the intent of “sending them to heaven.” Brittany Medina entered a guilty but mentally ill plea for two charges of neglect resulting in death for her children, Madelyn and Jackson Shelton, as indicated by court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
Lawrence County Superior Court Judge John M. Plummer III, who led the plea hearing, noted that he would evaluate the plea agreement before sentencing and requested a pre-sentence investigation report due the following month. If the plea deal is approved, it may result in dropping the two murder charges.
The judge set Medina’s sentencing hearing for 9 a.m. on Oct. 23.
Law&Crime previously reported that Medina surrendered at the Lawrence County Jail at 4:50 p.m. on September 26, 2023, claiming she had just killed her children. After being informed of her rights, Medina handed over her residence’s key and admitted to drowning her two children, aged one and three, in the bathroom.
When officers reached the home on the 1200 block of West Brook Street, they found Madelyn and Jackson deceased in the bedroom’s bathroom.
Medina confessed to consuming half a gram of Xanax, a suboxone strip, and snorting three lines of cocaine the night before the tragic event. On the morning after her boyfriend left for work, Medina reportedly served breakfast and put on cartoons for the children.
Around 2:30 p.m., Medina allegedly heard voices instructing her to “send her children to heaven today” or else someone would “come and take her children and her away and put them in a dark hole,” according to the affidavit summarizing her statement.
“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.”
