Lamar Mother Found Competent To Stand Trial For Kids' Drowning
Rebekah Amaya Told Investigators Spider Told Her To Kill Children
POSTED: 1:23 PM MST January 27, 2004
UPDATED: 2:04 PM MST January 27, 2004
LAMAR, Colo. -- A judge ruled Tuesday that a 32-year-old nurse is competent to stand trial on first-degree charges in the bathtub drowning deaths of her two children.
Police sayd Grace Headlee, 4, and Gabriel Amaya, 5 months, were killed by their mother.
Prowers County District Judge Douglas Talman set a preliminary hearing for Rebekah Amaya for March 31, prosecutors said. Talman issued his decision after a psychiatric evaluation of Amaya was conducted by doctors at the state mental hospital in Pueblo.
Investigators say Amaya drowned Grace, 4, and 5-month-old Gabriel in a tub at the family's home Oct. 16. In an arrest affidavit, Amaya told investigators she felt peace, not fear, when a spider crawled across her hand -- and she took that as a sign she should kill her children.
She remains jailed without bond. Her public defender, Tad Overturf, declined comment. The judge has issued a gag order in the case.

Friends said Amaya appeared depressed before the slayings. According to the arrest warrant, Amaya accused her husband of "bringing in unclean spirits" home from his maintenance job the night before the drownings.
Leo Amaya told police the two prayed and she appeared to be better, though she woke up three times and wept later that night.
Hours later, Leo Amaya returned home and found the two children dead in the tub and his wife nearby, unconscious and bleeding from knife wounds on her wrists.
The children were the first people slain in this southeastern Colorado town since 1992.
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Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.





