The community of Mitchell, Indiana is still struggling to come to terms with one of the most harrowing crimes in its history. Brittany D. Medina, the 35-year-old woman who confessed last year to drowning her two children in a bathtub, has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death. She now faces up to 40 years in prison when she is sentenced in Lawrence County Court on October 23.
The case first came to light in September 2023, when Medina walked into the Lawrence County Jail and told officers she had just killed her children. Police who rushed to her home on West Brook Street found 3-year-old Jackson and 1-year-old Maddy lifeless in the bathroom tub. Their bodies were positioned with their feet toward the shower, consistent with Medina’s account that she had drowned them.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Medina gave a chillingly direct confession during a recorded interview. She described filling the tub with water after hearing voices in her head, voices she believed were warning that if she didn’t “send her children to heaven,” strangers would kidnap them and put them “in a dark hole.” She told investigators she kissed her children, told them she loved them, and then held them underwater until Jackson stopped moving. “I ended up drowning them,” she said.
Medina admitted that the night before the killings, she had taken a half-gram of Xanax, a Suboxone strip, and three lines of cocaine. Police said she acknowledged her drug use but insisted that the voices that filled her mind the next day pushed her to kill. When asked whether she had intended to end her children’s lives, she did not hesitate: yes, she said, because she believed she was sending them to heaven.
What makes the case even more difficult for many in Mitchell is the fact that Medina turned herself in almost immediately after the murders, telling officers that she changed into dry clothes, got into her car, and drove straight to the county jail. For some, that detail underscores the depth of her mental instability; for others, it adds a disturbing clarity to her state of mind in the hours after the crime.
Initially charged with two counts of murder and two counts of neglect, Medina reached a plea deal this week, agreeing to plead guilty but mentally ill on the neglect charges. Prosecutors dropped the murder counts. The agreement allows the court to acknowledge her mental illness at the time of the crime while still holding her criminally responsible.
Her neighbors in Mitchell have spoken about the weight the case has placed on ther small community, with one resident saying, “You never imagine something like this happening down the street. You just hope the system makes sure those babies didn’t die in vain.”
When Medina returns to court in October, Judge John Plummer III will decide her sentence. Under the terms of her plea, she faces a possible 40-year prison term.
