Back in B-ton

I have way too much work to catch up on. I need to grade my class' final, their first short story drafts, prepare a draft of a story of mine for workshop finish my professor's book, and read 90+ pages of my peers' fiction for workshop tomorrow. Dammit.

Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Please enjoy this:

Elkhart woman charged with killing her 4 children
Prosecutor says he might seek the death penalty
By Tom Coyne | Associated Press | Monday, November 27, 2006

Elkhart County court security officer Mike Cain, left, and Elkhart County Corrections officer Cpl. David Kerk, rear, escort Angelica Alvarez from the Elkhart County Courthouse following her initial hearing Wednesday in Goshen, Ind. Alvarez was charged wit

ELKHART, Ind. -- A prosecutor is considering seeking the death penalty against a mother charged with strangling her four young children.

Angelica Alvarez, 27, of Elkhart, was ordered to be jailed without bond on four counts of murder during a court hearing held Wednesday just hours after she was released from Elkhart General Hospital. She had been in the hospital since being found unconscious with a faint pulse Nov. 14 next to the bodies of her children, ages 2 to 8.

Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hall called the case one of the worst he could recall because four children from the same family were killed.

"That is particularly troubling, and I think a circumstance of this nature requires an appropriate response," he said.

Authorities allege that Alvarez strangled her children, Jennifer Lopez, 8, Gonzalo Lopez, 6, Daniel Valdez, 4, and Jessica Valdez, 2. Fernando Valdez, the father of the two youngest and Alvarez's husband, came home from work and found their bodies in the basement of their home in Elkhart, 15 miles east of South Bend. The charges came a day after 300 people attended the children's funeral.

Hill would not give specifics on how the children were killed and does not know whether investigators have a theory on motive, saying Indiana law does not require it to try the case.

"I don't think there's anybody on this earth that can suggest to me a reason for killing children. So I'm not too concerned about what motive might be there," he said at a news conference.

Hill said he would not describe the case as a murder-suicide attempt.

"I would not consider this as anything other than a murder at this time," he said.

Elkhart Circuit Judge Terry Shewmaker ordered Alvarez be jailed without bond and that she be examined to make sure she is competent to stand trial. Hill said earlier he had no reason to believe she wasn't.

Gonzalo Lopez, father of the two oldest children, has said Alvarez was depressed after losing her job and had been hospitalized for 12 days. Officials at Norco Industries, where Alvarez had worked as a housekeeper for three years, said she quit in mid-September.

Lopez earlier told the South Bend Tribune that he met Alvarez in Mexico and that they lived in Lazaro Cardenas, a port city in the state of Michoacan. A decade ago, Lopez and Alvarez moved to Goshen, Ind., a town near Elkhart, where Lopez had family.

Shewmaker asked Alvarez through a translator Wednesday at the courthouse in Goshen whether she was in the country legally. She said no. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Dec. 21.

Hill said the Mexican consulate has been in touch with his office about Alvarez and said U.S. immigration officials also have inquired about the case. He said her citizenship status was not a concern.

"I don't think that really matters," he said. "I don't care if she is an American citizen; I don't care if she's a Mexican national; I don't much care if she is from the planet Mars. When you commit a murder of a child in Elkhart County, you will commit a steep price."