Video played of police interview of Irving mom confessing to murdering her two daughters
DALLAS - The prosecution rested its case Friday in the capital murder trial for a mother who confessed to Irving police that she killed her two young daughters.
Much of the final testimony focused on the police interview conducted the day after Madison McDonald killed her daughters, 1-year-old Lilian and 6-year-old Archer, in April 2021.
In the video, she continued making false claims she killed them to protect them from abuse.
Her lawyer argued she was having a severe mental health episode and did not know what she was doing.
We learned McDonald sedated her children by putting pills in their yogurt before smothering them to death.
Her defense team said she was off her mental health medication and presented a pattern of false claims she made to Irving police.
"I felt like I did what I had to do to protect my kids. I don’t, I’m not okay. I don’t think it’s right. I think I deserve to be arrested," McDonald said in the interrogation video.
Much of Friday’s testimony focused on the police interview conducted one day after the murders.
"I gave them some pills. Archer went to sleep and Lilian didn’t. She kept going. I thought that was odd because she is the baby essentially, so it should have affected her heavier, it’s hard to say, I feel like I’m going to throw up," McDonald said in the interrogation video.
McDonald told police she killed them to "protect" them from abuse and she told police she gave the girls Xanax and other pills in their yogurt.
She said she smothered her youngest child at about 1:30 p.m. on April 12, 2021, and killed her oldest daughter about seven hours later.
"I have tears because I miss them but I’m not sad for saving them," McDonald said in the interrogation video.
[DETECTIVE: "How long had you been planning that?"]
"It’s not that I was planning it," she responded.
[DETECTIVE: "How long had you thought about saving them?"]
"Well, I have been fighting to protect and save them for a year," McDonald said.
Father of Irving girl allegedly killed by mother testifies in court
The father of one of two Irving girls that prosecutors say were killed by their mother told a jury about the moment he learned of his daughter's death on Thursday.
When the prosecution rested its case, the defense called up several Irving police officers, who gave testimony about three incidents where a woman fitting the same description as McDonald made false claims that her children were in danger.
"We got a call that they received a note from a lady that drove through the drive-thru that passed a note that said, call the FBI, a woman and children are in danger," Irving PD officer Hamett said about an incident on November 14, 2020, when he responded to a San Diego Tacos.
McDonald’s lawyer is trying to prove that she’s not guilty by reason of insanity.
They’ve argued that she suffered bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and that she was off her medications.
Throughout the trial, they’ve worked to establish a pattern that she was not in her right mind.
[ATTORNEY: "This thing she believes was true, and it happened over a year, was causing her daughters to be in harm?"]
"Correct," a detective responded.
[ATTORNEY: "But it wasn’t true?"]
"Correct," the detective said.
[ATTORNEY: "But she believed it?"]
"She did," the detective answered.
The trial will resume Monday morning.