NEW ORLEANS — More than eight years after Chelsea Thornton killed her two young children inside her Gert Town apartment, a judge Monday granted her conditional release to a Baton Rouge group home.
Thornton, 31, was previously found not guilty by reason of insanity of first-degree murder for drowning her 4-year-old daughter and fatally shooting her 3-year-old son in October 2012.
Orleans Parish Criminal Court Judge Robin Pittman, who declared Thornton not guilty in a 2017 trial, presided over Thornton’s transfer request Monday in a hearing conducted electronically over Zoom.
Pittman ordered Thornton to be released from a state mental hospital to a group home described as a “dorm-like” setting. She said Thornton must first test negative for COVID-19 and remain safely isolated in the hospital until early December.
While the transfer paves the way for Thornton’s gradual release back into society, Pittman placed her on supervised probation with strict conditions. She ruled that Thornton can’t leave her group home without prior court approval and must remain under medical care.
Thornton never denied killing her two children. Psychiatrists testified that on the day of the killings, the young mom experienced a psychotic episode fueled by depression. At one point, she told doctors she wanted to save her kids from the same life of poverty that she experienced.
Thorton’s paternal grandmother found the two children dead in the bathtub inside the family’s squalid apartment.
“Though we can never bring her kids back, I am thankful to Judge Robin Pittman for choosing to save Chelsea’s life, realizing that she is mentally ill and ruling accordingly,” said Thorton’s defense attorney Lionel “Lon” Burns.
Pittman ordered a follow-up hearing on Dec. 9 to make sure all release conditions are met before Thornton is transferred.
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