A Colorado woman accused of killing two of her children last December and then fleeing to the United Kingdom was in court in London this week fighting extradition.
Kimberlee Sangler’s attorney argued against extradition, saying that the mandatory sentence in Colorado of life without parole violated a European human rights law that prohibits “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” NBC News reported.
“In Colorado, as a matter of history and political reality, there is no realistic prospect of release, whatever progress is made,” Fitzgerald said, according to the Press-Democrat. “No matter how bad the crime, there should be some opportunity of release.”
But after Prosecutor Joel Smith told the court that Colorado governors have, in fact, commuted such sentences in the past, the judge halted the proceedings and sent the attorneys back for a new report on sentencing. He continued the hearing until December 4.
Earlier this week, prosecutors told the Westminster Magistrates’ Court that Singler, 36, told her 11-year-old daughter, who survived the attack, that God made her kill her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, the Press-Democrat reported. Singler is accused of stabbing the surviving girl in the neck even as she begged her mother not to kill her.
Singler has denied attacking her children, and her defense lawyer said she believes the surviving daughter’s statement to police was coerced.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Singler reported that Elianna Wentz, 9, and Aden Wentz, 7, were killed in a robbery on December 19, and she and her oldest daughter were injured. Colorado Springs police, however, found no evidence of a robbery and issued an arrest warrant for Singler, who fled and was eventually arrested in London on December 30.
Prior to her flight to London, Singler had ignored a court order to hand the children over to their father, Kevin Wentz. She made the call about the robbery the day after a second court order was issued.
Colorado authorities issued warrants for her arrest charging her with two counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and assault, with enhancements based on the age of the children. Her attorney, Edward Fitzgerald, argued in court that she should not be extradited since she could face life in prison without parole, which violates European human rights law that prohibits “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” NBC News reported.
“In Colorado, as a matter of history and political reality, there is no realistic prospect of release, whatever progress is made,” Fitzgerald said. “No matter how bad the crime, there should be some opportunity of release.”
In his opening statement on Wednesday, Smith had outlined the case. Singler called police shortly after midnight on December 19, bringing officers to her apartment. The officers found the two younger children dead in their beds, the older daughter with serious neck wounds, and Singler with superficial wounds.
“She would later tell police that she had woken on (Dec. 18) feeling ‘weird’ and ‘woozy,’ and that the children had seemed drowsy as well,” Smith said. “She said that she suspected her former partner (the children’s father) of killing them, or organizing to have them killed. She said that a ‘dark figure’ had entered her apartment and that she had fainted.”
Investigators found that Wentz, the children’s father, had been driving a truck with GPS tracking during the supposed attack.
The older girl initially told police that a man came into the house from the patio and attacked them. But after she was released from the hospital and in foster care, she told her caregiver that her mother was the attacker and that she had told her to lie.
She said that Singler gave the children a drink with a powdery medicine in it, took them to one of the bedrooms, and that she 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.
Investigators found a blood-stained handgun and a bloody knife, and DNA found a mix of blood from the children and their mother on the weapons. They also found an empty bottle of sleeping pills.
The younger children were shot and stabbed, the BBC reported.
The UK’s Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, will make the final decision about the extradition.
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[Featured image: Kimberlee Singler/Colorado Springs Police Department]
