Isabel Martinez gestures towards news cameras during her first court appearance. Photo / AP
Isabel Martinez gestures towards news cameras during her first court appearance. Photo / AP
A woman charged with killing four of her young children and their father smiled and posed for cameras during her first court appearance before telling a judge she doesn't want a lawyer.
Isabel Martinez, 33, appeared before Gwinnett County Magistrate Judge Michael Thorpe a day after police said she stabbedthe five to death and seriously injured another child at a home outside Atlanta.
The injured child, a nine-year-old girl survived but remained hospitalised with injuries described by police as serious.
Martinez gestures towards news cameras. Photo / AP
Before the hearing began, Martinez sat with other inmates and struck poses for news cameras - smiling, giving a double thumbs up, putting her hands in a prayer position and spreading her arms out wide.
As Judge Thorpe listed the charges she faces - five counts of malice murder, five counts of murder and six counts of aggravated assault - Martinez smiled, shook her head "no" and wagged her finger at him. The judge advised her sharply not to perform for the cameras.
When the judge informed her of her right to have a lawyer, she said through a Spanish-language interpreter, that she doesn't want a lawyer. She later added that her lawyer will always be the people and her faith.
Mr Thorpe strongly advised Martinez to hire a lawyer or to allow one to be appointed for her.
"What prompts a person to take the life of such innocent children and her spouse is something we may never understand," Gwinnett County police said in a statement. "This is a horrendous crime not only for the victims but for the extended family, neighbourhood and community."
Psychologists and others who study cases of mothers accused of killing their children say it's not as uncommon as people might believe. But media coverage often focuses on dramatic cases, such as Andrea Yates who was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the 2001 drowning deaths of her five children.
Other cases get less attention, as when a woman kills a newborn or in children's deaths blamed on neglect, said Cheryl Meyer, co-author of two books on mothers who have killed children based on about 1000 cases during the 1990s.
Law enforcement personnel work at the home in Loganville, east of Atlanta. Photo / AP
Martinez in court. Photo / AP
That amounts to one death every three days. If anything, the total based on media reports at the time underestimates the reality, said Ms Meyer, a psychology professor at Wright State University in Ohio.
In cases when mothers kill intentionally, Ms Meyer said there is often another influence, such as mental health issues, post-partum depression or the loss of a close loved one. Yates' lawyers, for instance, said she had severe post-partum psychosis at the time she drowned her children, including her six-month-old daughter.
"We like to classify these women as pariahs, that they aren't at all like us," Ms Meyer said. "I found that was not the case."
Martinez was "immediately" detained after the bodies were found inside the home in Loganville, about 48 kilometres east of Atlanta, Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Michele Pihera told reporters at the scene on Thursday morning.
Authorities haven't said if Martinez was injured or discussed a motive.
"Right now we believe we have everybody involved in this crime," Cpl. Pihera said.
She confirmed that the 911 call came from a woman who was inside the home at 4:47am on Thursday to report a stabbing.
Cpl. Pihera said the caller was speaking Spanish, which initially made it difficult for 911 operators to communicate with her.
Flowers and stuffed toys left on the doorstep of a home where four children and their father were stabbed to death. Photo / AP
The county sheriff's office said Martinez is on a hold for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement but didn't provide further details.
The hospitalised girl, Diana Romero, was in serious but stable condition, police said in a brief update on the case.
The four children killed were identified as Isabela Martinez, 10; Dacota Romero, 7; Dillan Romero, 4; and Axel Romero, 2.
Their slain father was Martin Romero, 33, Cpl. Pihera said.
Early indications are that a knife was used to attack the five, though a medical examiner will make the final determination about the cause of death, she said.
One 2014 analysis of FBI data found there are around 500 cases per year of parents arrested for killing their children.
The study found that contact weapons such as a bat or edged weapons such as knives were rarely used in the cases studied.
Beating, choking and drowning were most common.
It's also unusual for a woman to kill an entire family rather than her children alone, Ms Meyer said, adding that she couldn't think of a single comparable case.
Some neighbours in the small, largely Hispanic neighbourhood said they had no clue anything was amiss in the home until police mobbed the scene on Thursday morning.
The neighbours said the Spanish-speaking family had moved to the community recently, and their children seemed happy playing with other neighbourhood kids.
Victoria Nievs said the children's mother had recently suffered the death of her father. Jim Hollandsworth is spokesman at The Path Project, a non-profit organisation that runs an after-school program that the family's children participated in.
He said the family had been in the community for a few months.
While the children spoke English as a second language, he said, they were fluent.
"It's awful. It's devastating. Everyone is in complete shock," he said. "The kids were engaged in what we're doing. They were happy. They were fantastic kids with a bright future."
