See the update at the end of this post on Marilyn Kay Edge's arraignment being delayed until December.
ORIGINAL POST, OCT. 25, 6 A.M.: The Arizona mother who allegedly tried to kill herself in Costa Mesa after the poisoning murders of her two children in Santa Ana last month–and who later agreed with an Orange County judge to delay her arraignment “only if you promise to give me the death penalty”–has that hearing scheduled this morning.
Scottsdale 42-year-old Marilyn Kay Edge could get her wish for the ultimate penalty for the double homicides of her son and daughter, who she was supposed to hand over to their father, who had custody of the children.
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Marilyn Kay Edge, Mom Who Allegedly Killed Her Two Kids, Asks 3 Times for Death Penalty
She is charged with two felony counts of murder with special circumstance enhancements for committing multiple murders and murder by poisoning that with a conviction–at minimum–would earn her life in state prison without the possibility of parole. But the district attorney can also seek the death penalty and/or convene a death-penalty panel within his office to possibly recommend that.
Those who watched this story unfold know the events backward, from the time of the suicide attempt to the discovery of the children's bodies to the custody hearing that did not go Edge's way, apparently sending her over the, well, edge.
An Orange County District Attorney's office arraignment statement puts these events in chronological order:
On Sept. 11, 2013, Edge lost custody of her two children, 10-year-old Faith E. and 13-year-old Jaelen E., at a family court hearing in Georgia, where her ex-husband lives, following a court ruling. Edge was ordered to submit her children to the Court on Sept. 15, 2013.
On Sept. 12, 2013, Edge is accused of driving from Georgia to Arizona, where her children were living, and then driving them to California under the false pretense that they were going on a family vacation. The defendant is accused of staying in a Santa Ana hotel with her children.
Late in the evening of Sept. 13, 2013, Edge is accused of murdering her two children by poisoning them.
Sometime in the early morning hours of Sept. 14, 2013, Edge is accused of attempting to drive into an electrical box outside a hardware store in Costa Mesa. The defendant is accused of crashing into a protective pole surrounding the electrical box, which disabled her vehicle.
The family vacation was supposed to be at Disneyland. The bodies were found in Edge's third-floor room at the Hampton Inn N Suites in the 2700 block of Hotel Terrace in Santa Ana. The hardware store was the Home Depot in the center at Harbor Boulevard and Wilson Street.
This morning's continued arraignment hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in the Central Jail in Santa Ana.
UPDATE, OCT. 25, 11:38 A.M.: Marilyn Kay Edge's arraignment was delayed in court this morning to Dec. 13.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.