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THIBODAUX - Amy Hebert heard a male voice tell her she must die with her children the morning of Aug. 20, 2007, her attorney told jurors at the start of her trial today.
THIBODAUX - Amy Hebert heard a male voice tell her she must die with her children the morning of Aug. 20, 2007, her attorney told jurors at the start of her trial today.
Hebert, 42, who faces a possible death penalty, admits she stabbed her 9-year-old daughter Camille and 7-year-old son Braxton to death inside their home on St. Anthony Street in Mathews.
Hebert, who was allegedly near death from numerous self-inflicted stab wounds and cuts after police found her lying in bed with the slain children, has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts of first-degree murder.
Defense attorney George Parnham told jurors his client heard a male voice whispering, telling her that her estranged husband was “going to take the children.”
″ ‘You’ll never see the kids again; you must die with them,’ ” he said the voice told her.
Hebert began weeping as Parnham described her stabbing her daughter in the skull.
Lafourche Parish District Attorney Cam Morvant II rejects the defense’s insanity theory. Morvant told jurors letters she wrote to her husband Chad Hebert and his mother will prove the prosecution’s contention that Hebert had a motive for killing the children.
Her attorneys acknowledge that she killed the children but seek to convince jurors that she did not know right from wrong because of mental illness when the acts occurred.
The 10 women and two men who will decide the fate of the former elementary-school aide were sworn in Sunday.
That afternoon, the Courthouse Annex looked more like an airport or a bus terminal as jurors bid farewell to family and hauled luggage through screening equipment before taking seats in District Judge Jerome Barbera’s courtroom.
One juror, a young man in jeans and a T-shirt, handed sheriff’s deputies a golf putter before walking through the metal detector. Others lugged suitcases of all shapes and sizes into the courthouse.
The jurors will be sequestered in a local hotel for the duration of the trial and will be ferried to and from court by sheriff’s deputies, who are also charged with their security during their hotel stay.
Three men and one women are being retained as alternates in case one or more jurors are unable to complete the trial.
They were chosen from a pool of 68 people after about two weeks of jury selection.
In the courtroom Sunday, Barbera instructed the jurors on trial procedure and rules, noting that the jury will be the sole decider of the evidence in the case.
“Apply yourselves diligently to a determination of the facts,” he said.
The judge said he understood the sacrifice they were making to fulfill their duty as citizens.
“Being away from your family and your regular activities is a hardship,” Barbera said.
He instructed the jurors to avoid news reports about the case and admonished them to refrain from talking about the trial with anyone, including each other.
“The temptation to discuss that with your fellow jurors will be strong,” Barbera said.
