RICHMOND COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia woman will remain in prison after being convicted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter in a bizarre plot to go to Heaven.
Marina Middlebrooks pleaded not guilty by means of insanity in the 2013 stabbing death of her daughter, Sky Allen. She was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and an additional 20 years.
The Georgia Supreme Court has now upheld Middlebrooks’ conviction.
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According to court testimony, Middlebrooks claimed that God had given her and her daughter had been given a “green aura” that made them “special and unique.” She added that she and her daughter were being “persecuted” by people who “would mean them harm” because “they would want to have access to that gift.”
Middlebrooks believed that the only way to escape persecution was to “go to Heaven” and the only way to get there was if she and Sky committed suicide, testimony revealed.
A psychiatrist who evaluated Middlebrooks testified that the woman told her that she put a pair of scissors in the toddler’s hands and then helped her stab herself in the neck several times.
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She also stated that Middlebrooks believed they had to be completely naked when they committed suicide so the spirits would not be blocked by clothes or jewelry.
Middlebrooks was captured after crashing her car into a tree wearing nothing but a sweatshirt. She was reportedly on her way to a marina to complete her suicide.
In 2020, Middlebrooks filed a motion for a new trial, but it was denied.
She is currently serving her sentence at Pulaski State Prison in central Georgia.
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