Marilyn Edge was supposed to turn over her son and daughter to her ex-husband in Georgia.Of course the court psychologists and other experts could not figure out that the mom was nuts.
Instead, police allege, she fled with the children to Southern California and killed them.
On Saturday night, the bodies of the children -- Jaelen, 13, and Faith, 10 -- were found in a hotel in Santa Ana, California.
Edge, 42, was apprehended Saturday night after apparently trying to commit suicide by crashing her car at a Home Depot parking lot in a nearby town, police said.
The former couple had been fighting a years-long custody battle over the children.Besides the mom, I blame Judge Leonard for these deaths. He prolonged a child custody dispute for years. If we had a law that all fit parents have a right to joint custody, then we would not have judges torturing the parents in this way.
Weeks told CNN affiliate WSB that Marilyn Edge had abruptly left court last week after a judge's custody ruling did not go in her favor.
Under the order, she was meant to hand the two children over to her ex-husband at Cobb County Police Headquarters in Georgia.
"When Judge Leonard was giving his order on Wednesday afternoon, she got up and left the courtroom in the middle of it, so that was the ultimate message to Judge Leonard: 'I'm not going to listen to what you have to say.'" said Weeks. ...
If convicted, she faces a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole.
Kimberly writes:
This crap would never happen if PARENTS would just agree that the children come first above and beyond everything else. Children need to see both their mother and father on equal time. Instead parents try to take custody away from one another and create anger. Grow up! Separated and divorced parents, moms and dads, take responsibility for your actions, and stop blaming the other parent. It takes two to tango. And yes, I am a divorced single parent who has worked hard to get along with the father of my children, and now have well adjusted young adults. God bless those children.I agree with her. I would add that it also takes a judge to back up the joint custody, instead of a multi-year examination of who is the better parent. Someone responded:
You are the exception. Most women use the children as weapons to get back at their Ex.Another says:
this is just another case of how inept the damn courts are. One year of a contentious custody battle and the mother walks out on the judge and no one had the common sense to ever think the kids should have been protected! Having had a custody battle myself I know personally how dangerous the court system is -- they are run by incompetent and arrogant people who for 20 minutes every few months play God -- and make really bad decisions (and usually never ever read the reports!!) God Bless the souls of those innocent children, and the many to come because of incompetence!!The reader who sent this story adds:
One of the comments to the story below mentioned a new shared parenting law in Arizona and here's an article about that:The Minnesota governor is Democrat Mark Dayton."Unlike Arizona, which gives judges authority to decide exactly how much time each parent gets, many states have minimum requirements. Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Dakota, for example, now require that each parent get at least 40 percent parenting time...
"The Minnesota Legislature passed a bill this year to give the non-custodial parent at least 35 percent parenting time, up from 25 percent. But the governor vetoed it."
4 comments:
"Kimberly writes:
This crap would never happen if PARENTS would just agree that the children come first above and beyond everything else."
True, but irrelevant. This woman was mad. The blame is entirely on the judge for putting these children in the care of a madwoman.
The judge, Rob Leonard, has only been on the Superior Court bench since last November, so he can't be completely responsible for a years-long custody battle.
A judge can only rule on the case as presented; he can't necessarily know that a party is crazy. I suspect that my ex-wife murdered her mother, but I never tried to make that case in family court because a judge might have thought I was the crazy one!
He probably should have held her in contempt of court and forced her to acknowledge his order. One hopes that lesson will stay with him for the rest of his life.
As for "taking two to tangle", just what is a parent supposed to do when the other parent is completely unreasonable and uncooperative? Just take responsibility for marrying this person and go away quietly, leaving the children to fend for themselves as best they can?
Kimberly's comment was "two to tango". That is, it takes two to make an agreement, but only one unreasonable party to ruin it.
You are right that we cannot blame the judge for not recognizing the wife's craziness, when maybe no one brought evidence of that. It appears that she was intransigent in court, but we don't know for sure. But I still expect judges to enforce joint custody, and not let cases drag on for years.
Completely disagree with Kimberly's comment that the blame is entirely on the judge.
Nobody -- including the children's father --anticipated Ms. Edge would commit such a heinous act. But the judge was supposed to know somehow?
The father's attorney was quoted as saying, "“We had been very troubled she would run with the children, but never anticipated this,” said Marian Weeks, who represented Edge's former husband, Mark Anthony Edge, in the custody fight.
The case apparently had been going on for 5 years and reached the Supreme Court of Georgia. The courts do not create these messes and cannot predict horrific outcomes such as this one. To my knowledge, Ms. Edge did not have known mental problems. She murdered her children to punish her husband. If I cannot have them, I'll make sure you don't get them. Sounds like the epitome of an unfit parent to me.
Unfortunately there are many, many bitter custody battles that last years. Why this woman went off the deep end and committed such a selfish and evil act cannot be blamed on the legal system and certainly not the judge who granted custody to the apparently more stable parent.
I see Ms. Edge is requesting the death penalty...may her wish be granted.
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