Could an Illinois woman have been insane when she stabbed and killed her 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old girl in 2012, allegedly believing the children were possessed by demons and that a “black shadow” told her to kill them?
That’s exactly what Elzbieta Plackowska’s defense team is trying to prove in her ongoing murder trial when they called a forensic psychiatrist to the stand last week — but the prosecution isn’t buying it.
Videos by PopCulture.com
According to court documents, her team is mounting an insanity defense, and she has pleaded not guilty to murder and animal cruelty.
The children were killed on Oct. 30, 2012 in Naperville, Illinois. They were stabbed more than 100 times. Plackowska also killed two dogs that same evening.
Dr. Phillip Resnick took the stand for over four hours on Wednesday and told the court that 45-year-old Packowska “had a psychotic belief” that demons had invaded the bodies of her son, Justin, and Olivia Dworakowski, a girl she had been asked to babysit.
Resnick testified that Plackowska began experiencing psychosis several weeks after her father’s death in Poland, and was therefore unable to comprehend the severity of her actions. He said that she believed the children would allow them to enter heaven.
The prosecution team begs to differ with the Resnick and the defense’s insanity plea, bringing forth its own expert witness.
Dr. Alexander Obolsky, a Chicago forensic psychiatrist, called Plackowska a narcissist with an alcohol problem, and that she killed because she felt unappreciated by her children and husband, a long-haul trucker often away from home.
He said her varying accounts of what happened that evening indicate not someone with a mental illness, but someone looking to evade responsibility.
After the stabbings, she drove to a friend’s home where her older son was staying. She told the friend and her son that an intruder had killed the children.
“She knew what she had done was wrong and she needed an excuse,” Obolsky said.
He also said that he thought she was faking some of her symptoms in the county jail during the days after her arrest, like pretending to take clothes out of her dresser and put them on, or offering a sausage to a nurse when there was no sausage on her plate.
Upon cross-examination of Resnick, the defense also pointed out that Plackowska placed a knife used in the attack in the kitchen disposal and threw her cell phone away, signs that they say she knew what she did was wrong.
“It’s like a bad Hollywood movie,” he said.
Additional information will be presented on Tuesday, which is expected to close out the presentation of evidence. Closing arguments are expected for Wednesday.
Photo Credit: Dupage Country Sheriff’s Office
