Woman admits drowning 2-year-old

Kimberly Lucas pleaded guilty Tuesday to the first-degree murder of her former partner’s 2-year-old daughter and attempted first-degree murder of her 10-year-old son.

In exchange for the pleas, Lucas, 43, accepted a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 30-year term and an order not to contact the family of Jacquelyn Jamason, the children’s biological mother.

Jamason said she’s experienced heartache and depression after young Elliana was murdered, and son Ethan hospitalized from an overdose. But she said she also felt “some of the most spiritual and defining moments of my life.”

It is why she supported the plea deal for Lucas, who had been facing a death penalty trial for the May 26, 2014 attacks on the children they had been co-parenting in Jupiter before Jamason broke off the 20-year relationship.

Prosecutors said Lucas drowned the girl in a bathtub and convinced the boy to take an anti-anxiety pill with coffee “to help him grow faster.” Attorneys for Lucas, who that day also attempted suicide by overdosing on drugs, had planned an insanity defense.

But Jamason said she didn’t want to be forced to endure years of unnecessary suffering as Lucas’ case meandered through the criminal justice system.

“What kind of justice would be enough for premeditated murder of a child, your very own child?” said Jamason, a therapist at Compass, a Lake Worth organization that supports the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. “The only thing I keep coming up with is justice for me is peace and peace is knowing my son and I will never have to look over our shoulder again as long as we live.”

Later, Jamason told reporters she wasn’t interested in pursuing the death penalty and she believed in leaving Lucas’ fate up to God.

Lucas apologized and blamed her actions on mental illness.

“Ethan and Elliana will remain in my heart forever,” Lucas said. “My children were my world. I loved them more than life itself.”

Later, she added, “If I could trade my life for [Elliana’s] I would without hesitation,” Lucas said. “I am truly sorry.”

Jamason, a member of the Metropolitan Elliana “Elli” Jamason smiles in an undated family photo. Elli, 2, was murdered in 2014. Community Church of the Palm Beaches, also spoke of reaching a point of forgiving Lucas for her ultimate betrayal.

“I have learned that no one can take away my pain of the loss of my child except God and that forgiveness is the key to peace,” she said, later adding “today I replace loss and grief with healing, hate with light and love, and anger with compassion.”

Ethan Jamason, a student at Florida School for Dance Education, told Circuit Judge Charles Burton that he used to call Lucas his mama when he was younger child, and that he had memories of loving, laughing and singing with his “beautiful little sister.”

“The day that Kimberly decided to take my sister’s life, she not only stole my sister, she took away a parent, grandparents, aunts and uncles. And the world as I knew it was changed forever,” he said.

Police said the boy found his sister submerged in a bathtub, tried to revive her, and called 911.

“I’m dizzy, I just woke up,” he told the dispatcher on the call.

Police said they came across a computer monitor in the home’s kitchen. There was a note written by Lucas, citing a church sermon she heard the day before.

It referred to the biblical story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In the passage, God at the last minute stops Abraham from carrying out the killing.

“God never told me to stop!” Lucas wrote, signing “Love you Always Kimberly!”

On Tuesday, Lucas told the judge she didn’t remember anything from the day of the tragedy but “I understand what I’m pleading guilty to, sir.”