TYLER, Texas (AP) – A Texas housewife who smashed her sons’ skulls with rocks last Mother’s Day weekend is a textbook example of insanity as defined by state law, a psychiatrist testified Friday.

Psychiatrist William Reid said he could use the case of Deanna Laney, who said God told her to kill her children, to teach students about Texas’ definition of insanity.

“I don’t think she had any choice,” Reid said.

Attorneys for the defense and the state rested their cases Friday. Closing arguments were scheduled for Saturday morning.

Laney, 39, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to charges of murdering 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke and severely beating Aaron, then 14 months old. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

All five mental health experts consulted in the case said Laney had psychotic delusions and was incapable of knowing right from wrong at the time of the killings, the legal standard in Texas for insanity.

Reid said the case is the first time he’s seen such agreement among experts in similar trials.

Prosecutors have portrayed the slayings as selfish acts, and maintained Laney had to have known she was doing wrong. Her first call was to 911 to summon authorities.

In a tape made days after the killings, Laney was wide-eyed, occasionally smiling and animated as she described events leading up to the bloodshed.

“I feel like that I obeyed God and I believe there will be good out of this,” she told psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick. “I feel like he will reveal his power and they will be raised up. They will become alive again.”

If Laney is found innocent by reason of insanity, she would be hospitalized for treatment, and medical evaluations would dictate her release. If convicted of capital murder, she would face life in prison.

AP-ES-04-02-04 2057EST

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