A lawyer for the mother charged with attempted murder and child abuse after she drove her three children into the Atlantic Ocean at Daytona Beach is pursuing an insanity defense.
Prosecutors say Ebony Wilkerson planned to kill her children by intentionally driving her minivan into the ocean on March 4. Dramatic video showed bystanders jumping into action to save the three children after the van plunged into the surf near the approach at Silver Beach Road.
Family members told investigators Wilkerson came to Florida with her children to escape her abusive husband. According to an arrest affidavit from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, Wilkerson's 10-year-old daughter said her mother took them to the beach "so we could die."
The pregnant mother has been undergoing treatment for mental illness since her arrest.