Now she's on trial, and whether she spends life in prison hinges on a key question for jurors: After years of profound mental illness, was she unable to realize what she did was wrong, as her defense attorneys say? Or did she plan the January 2011 killings over at least several days, as prosecutors say, complaining at one point that the three-day wait to buy a gun would "delay the massacre"?
Jury selection began Monday morning in Julie Scheneker's case. She is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Those on the jury will see many disturbing images and hear hours of troubling evidence. They will see several sides to Schenecker, a former military linguist and wife of a colonel.
They will see an attentive suburban mom, cheering from the sidelines as her kids played soccer. They will also see a woman who bought a gun the weekend before the killings — and who complained in a letter that a three-day waiting period would "delay the massacre." They will see the handcuffed inmate, escorted by officers, who walked rigidly into jail following her arrest, her face contorted and eyes empty.
Schenecker, 53, looks older and vastly different than pictures that emerged of her as a blonde, athletic mom in the years before the crime. She sat in the courtroom Monday, flanked by her public defenders, who plan an insanity defense.
