‘God told me to stone my children to death’

A MOTHER who smashed her sons’ heads with heavy rocks, killing two of the boys, was so deluded she thought the Lord told her to do it, her lawyer said in opening statements at her murder trial.

"Does she follow what she believes to be God's will or does she turn her back on her God?" defence lawyer F.R. "Buck" Files Jr asked the jury of eight men and four women in Tyler, Texas.

Deanna Laney, 39, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to charges of murdering eight-year-old Joshua and six-year-old Luke and causing serious injury to Aaron, 14 months. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.