NORTH HERO, Vt. (AP) – A Montreal woman charged with drowning her 8-year-old son will plead that she was insane at the time, according to court papers filed by her lawyer.

“This is behavior by a person completely contrary to everything we know about her – loving, a schoolteacher, never been in trouble before in her life,” defense lawyer Bob Katims said Wednesday of his client, Louise Desnoyers. “To do something so out of character certainly raises questions about her mental health.”

Katims filed papers in Vermont District Court for Grand Isle County laying out the claim that Desnoyers, 49, was insane when she killed Nicholas Desnoyers-Langlois. It’s a strategy rarely used in Vermont trials that could result in acquittal.

Desnoyers has pleaded innocent to one count of first-degree murder. Police say the second-grade teacher was distraught after she and Real Langlois, her longtime partner, talked about ending their relationship. Police say she drove Nicholas, the younger of their two sons, to Isle La Motte, the Lake Champlain island community where she had vacationed in the past.

Investigators say she held the boy’s head under water until he drowned, then tied his body to a boat mooring, went to a nearby shed and tried to kill herself by cutting her wrists and neck, drinking windshield washer fluid and taking pills. She was found in time to be rushed to a hospital.

Desnoyers could be found competent to stand trial, but not guilty by reason of having been insane at the time of the killing. Trial is scheduled for July 26, but Katims said it may be delayed as lawyers exchange records from Vermont and Canada detailing her physical and mental health. A pretrial conference has been set for June 21.

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Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com

AP-ES-06-07-07 0938EDT