The lawyer for an Edmonton mother accused of killing her daughter has told court she should not be held criminally responsible for the crime.
Christine Longridge has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and a weapons charge.
Rachael Longridge, who was 21, was found in December 2016 with severe sharp forced injuries.
According to the agreed facts, Christine Longridge has a long history of mental illness, but had stopped taking her medication after her husband died in 2015.
The document states that she thought her son was the Messiah and in order to save him, both she and her daughter had to die.
Longridge has had two psychiatric assessments in the last year.
"She didn't know what she was doing was morally wrong, because she was acting on the voice of a higher being," her lawyer Dino Bottos said Wednesday in court.
Don Metz, a longtime family friend, testified that Longridge, 51, was a loving, supportive mother and was quiet and shy.
"Nobody saw this coming," Metz said.
On Thursday and Friday, the defence is expected to bring in two forensic psychologists to testify about Longridge's mental health. (CTV Edmonton)
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