Woman accused of leaving kids to die plans to plead insanity

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A North Dakota woman accused of leaving her 2- and 4-year-old daughters to die in an unheated car during a frigid winter day intends to plead insanity, her attorney said.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Ryan Costello has asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Miller to send Michelle Wounded Face to the State Hospital in Jamestown for a psychological and psychiatric evaluation "and mental health treatment," court documents show. Miller did not immediately rule on that request. He did, however, order a blood sample be taken from Wounded Face after she allegedly bit a jail guard.

The 24-year-old Wounded Face is accused of abandoning her daughters in a car in a remote area for more than three hours on Jan. 3, in bitter cold weather. They survived. She faces a child abuse charge that carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Should an evaluation conclude Wounded Face is not competent to stand trial because of her mental health, she would go to a federal facility to get psychiatric help. If she ultimately is deemed competent to stand trial, a judge or jury would rule on whether she is criminally culpable.

Wounded Face, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, has been living on the Fort Berthold Reservation in northwestern North Dakota. She acknowledged during an interview that she had left the children in the car to die, FBI Special Agent Megan Bennett said in an affidavit.

Both the prosecution and defense have said in court documents that Wounded Face has exhibited odd behavior, and Miller terminated her Jan. 12 preliminary hearing after concluding that she did not understand the proceedings and was displaying signs of poor mental health. The U.S. attorney's office is not objecting to a proposed psychiatric evaluation.

On Jan. 21, Wounded Face refused to go back to her cell at the Heart of America Correctional and Treatment Center in Rugby and began to fight with officers, Security Director Darren Heidbreder said in court documents. When an officer put his arm up to block Wounded Face from spitting on him, Wounded Face bit through the skin on the officer's arm, Heidbreder said.

"The doctors are requesting a blood sample to be tested to determine if any further precautions are necessary due to the possible cross-contamination of bodily fluids," Heidbreder wrote.

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