North Hills mom found guilty of murdering 2 young sons
Laurel Schlemmer, the North Hills mother who murdered her two youngest sons because she said they would be better off in heaven, was found guilty Thursday of third-degree murder but mentally ill.
“It is my fervent hope that in the future, mental health treatment will bring you, Ms. Schlemmer, to the shocking realization of what you have done so that you will continue to be punished far beyond any sentence this court might impose,” Allegheny County Common Pleas President Judge Jeffrey A. Manning said while issuing his verdict.
Manning also found Schlemmer guilty of two counts of child endangerment and one count of tampering with evidence.
The third-degree murder convictions carry 20 to 40 years in prison for each of her boys: Daniel, 6, and Luke, 3. The child endangerment convictions each carry five-year prison sentences.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 8.
Schlemmer, who waived her right to a jury trial and did not testify, wept throughout the verdict but did not speak.
Her guilt was not at issue.
Schlemmer confessed to the murders and her attorney, Michael Machen, did not contest the facts of the case.
“Clearly the defendant committed the crime,” Manning said. “So not guilty is not a possible verdict.”
At issue was whether Schlemmer had the mental capacity to form specific intent to kill, which would establish the difference between a first-degree murder conviction — and a mandatory term of life in prison — or a third-degree murder conviction.
By finding Schlemmer guilty but mentally ill, Manning said she will receive mental health care “for as long as is necessary and not simply imprisoned as punishment for committing these crimes.”
Contempt warning
Following the verdict, Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini informed the court that Schlemmer's husband, Mark Schlemmer, repeatedly has violated a court-issued, no-contact order preventing Laurel Schlemmer from seeing the couple's only surviving child.
Mark Schlemmer brings Joshua, 10, to visit his mother at the Allegheny County Jail, Pellegrini said, despite warnings from the District Attorney's Office not to do so.
Manning instructed the court to enforce the no-contact order and to inform Mark Schlemmer that he will be held in contempt of court should he violate the order again.
Mark Schlemmer did not attend the verdict.
The murders
Laurel Schlemmer has a history of mental illness dating to the sixth grade that includes anxiety, depression and episodes of dissociation, psychiatric experts said during the trial.
Schlemmer believed — incorrectly — that Luke and Daniel had autism. She feared being the mother of special-needs children.
On April 1, 2014, Schlemmer said she walked Joshua to the bus stop, returned to the house and drew a bath for Luke and Daniel.
She told investigators that “crazy voices” told her to put the boys in the tub — first Daniel, then Luke — hold their heads under water and sit on them.
“It was horrendous,” Schlemmer said in an interview with forensic psychiatrist Bruce Wright. “The horror got worse. I couldn't believe it. I felt like I'm floating above myself.”
After getting out of the bathtub, Schlemmer “ran around the house screaming, darting from room to room,” she told Wright.
She took the boys out, dried them off, combed their hair and lined them up next to each other on the bathroom floor, court records show. She then changed out of her wet clothes, hid them in a garbage can and called 911.
Luke died that day. Daniel survived four days at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC on life support.
“This was the fastest way for them to get to heaven,” Schlemmer told Wright.
‘She needs treatment'
Pellegrini, the lead prosecutor, did not speak after the verdict. Her boss, District Attorney Stephen Zappala, spoke earlier in the day at Monroeville Municipal Chambers and said “it was clear” Schlemmer knew what she was doing.
“She was deliberate in the process she put into place that led to the loss of these two children's lives,” Zappala said. “But at the same time, she's ill and needs treatment.”
Pellegrini, Zappala and even the family's former pastor believe Mark Schlemmer holds some responsibility.
On April 16, 2013, Laurel Schlemmer ran over Luke and Daniel in the driveway of her parents' Marshall home — an incident that police ruled an accident. But Mark Schlemmer testified that his wife told him she tied the boys up with twine and ran them over intentionally, causing them serious injuries. He also acknowledged that four days before she killed them, she told her husband she wanted to call police and confess. Mark Schlemmer told her not to tell police.
They also argued over birth control and medication, Laurel Schlemmer said in interviews with forensic psychiatrists.
The use of birth control went against Mark Schlemmer's “increasingly fervent religious beliefs,” Laurel Schlemmer told psychiatrist Robert Wettstein, so they relied heavily on the rhythm method, “at his insistence.” Schlemmer was pregnant six times; three resulted in miscarriages.
After her final miscarriage in 2012, Schlemmer felt “considerable relief,” Wettstein wrote in his evaluation, “in that she had originally only wanted two children, but accommodated her husband's request for an additional child, and then his demand that they use natural family planning for contraception. ... After this pregnancy, she remained fearful of another pregnancy.”
The psychiatric evaluations also showed that Laurel Schlemmer sought counseling multiple times and went on and off medications.
“Mark and I were not on the same page regarding medication,” she told Wright. “He was reluctant to have me try it. It was a little bit of a tug of war over medication.”
Mark Schlemmer testified that he was “open” to the use of medications, but he worried about side-effects.
He declined to comment when he attended the trial last week.
“I respect somebody's moral and religious beliefs, but he's got to live with the fact that something maybe could have been done to protect those children a little bit better,” Zappala said.
The DA's office will not pursue criminal charges against him.
‘No red flags'
Pastor Dan Hendley of North Park Church, where the Schlemmers once worshipped, said members of his congregation reached out to the Schlemmers after the April 2013 incident.
But because it was ruled an accident, he said, nobody realized the problems ran deeper.
“We had no clue, no indication, there was something else going on other than a simple accident rooted in carelessness,” Hendley said Thursday. “People in our church were engaged with her. But what people choose to make known is the limit you can go. A few people knew she was struggling, but the extent of it — oh my goodness. Nobody had any idea.”
Mark Schlemmer did, evidence and his own testimony shows.
“Certainly Mr. Schlemmer feels like he failed, and I'm not going to argue that,” Hendley said. “He knew more than we did. ... He made a monumental error in judgment. Why he did that, I don't know.”
Mark Schlemmer and Joshua stopped attending services at the church a few months after the murders, Hendley said.
‘A systematic failure'
Jenn Martino, who attended the trial and described herself as a longtime friend of Laurel Schlemmer's, issued a statement that read, in part:
“We do not condone or excuse what she did; however, we want people to know that she is not heartless, but rather a beloved child of God who sadly was suffering from mental illness (and) was not able to get the help she so desperately needed. ... Our prayer would be for all of us to be more attuned with our loved ones and those around us who may be trying to cry out for help.”
Pellegrini also noted that Schlemmer “cried out for help” and got none.
“This was a systematic failure of (the boys') father, the family, their church and CYF to protect them,” Pellegrini said in her closing argument.
Workers from the Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and Families conducted an assessment of the boys after the April 2013 incident, officials said after the boys were murdered. But police and hospital staff determined the incident was an accident, and CYF workers found no signs of abuse or neglect and closed the investigation.
Hendley said he does not think the church missed any red flags.
“Do I feel there was some sort of institutional failure? No,” Hendley said. “People were doing things. I was aware she was on medication. She'd been seen for depressant tendencies, but there was nothing else ... I'm not feeling personally guilty that there was some big red flag I overlooked.
“Our church was awesome. The amount of support that family received made me proud to be pastor. It was great to see. So I have no particular regrets, only great appreciation for being part of this church.”
Staff writer Samson X Horne contributed. Chris Togneri is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-380-5632 or ctogneri@tribweb.com.
