Lisette Bamenga: Bronx Woman Who Killed Two Kids Because Boyfriend Cheated Convicted Of Manslaughter

Lisette Bamenga, an ex-New York City French teacher who killed her two young kids in a Bronx apartment because her police officer boyfriend, Trevor Noel, had an affair and fathered a child, was found guilty of manslaughter on Friday at the Bronx Supreme Court.

As Huffington Post reported, Judge Martin Marcus convicted the 32-year-old elementary school teacher of manslaughter by reason of extreme disturbance. Marcus found Bamenga accountable for her actions, but because she suffered emotional turmoil, whittled down the charges from murder to manslaughter. The defendant’s attorney, Niall Macgiollabhuí. said that Bamenga would be sentenced April 25 and could spend between five and 25 years in prison. Bamenga had opted for a bench trial instead of a jury trial, leaving it to Judge Martin Marcus to come to a decision over her fate.

Ex-teacher who poisoned, drowned kids guilty of manslaughter: Lisette Bamenga, 33, had… https://t.co/PKCWqWGEIv #NYC pic.twitter.com/QgzsUHuPdu

— NewYork (@NewYorkLoving) April 8, 2016

Investigators revealed the suicidal mother had researched on the Internet for instructions on how to kill her two kids, and settled for two tablespoons of toxic wiper fluid. In July 2012, Lisette Bamenga was charged with poisoning Kenny Noel, 5, and Violet Noel, a 4-month-old baby, by putting windshield fluid in their grape juice, but when that did not kill them, she drowned them in a bath tub.

Bamenga had then sealed her windows with tape, cut her wrists, and turned on the gas in an obvious suicide attempt. She had left a suicide note behind, written in French and English, and sent a text to her boyfriend.

“Noel I’m sorry that the kids are gone, I’m next.”

Her boyfriend came home from his shift at Manhattan’s 28th Precinct to find his children dead.

Police had responded to a 911 call over a gas leak and found Bamenga bleeding from her wrists and the kids lying motionless on the kitchen floor. She said that the kids were in “a better place.” A pair of underpants belonging to her boyfriend that once read “Mr. Right” was found with the “Right” word crossed out and “Wrong” written with a black marker.

Even though prosecutors say that Bamenga killed her children to get back at their dad, her attorneys, Michael Dowd and Niall Macgiollabhuí, said that their client had lost total touch with reality and was suffering from psychosis and postpartum depression which remained untreated at the time of the killings. The defense attorneys did not deny the fact that their client committed the terrible act of killing her kids, but they wanted it to be seen as a “crime of insanity” that would make Bamenga unaccountable for her actions. The judge thought otherwise.

“We got a fair trial, but on the other hand there is a problem with the law of insanity as it currently stands in New York. The horror of a mother killing her own children make it difficult for people to accept an explanation rooted in science. It’s a painful process to try and understand it. But we have to understand it because if we don’t, it will keep happening,” Macgiollabhuí said. Darcel D. Clark, Bronx district attorney, said, “the killing of these young children is a horrendous tragedy, and their mother has been held accountable for her actions.”

Dr. Nancy Snyderman says over 10 percent of mothers go through postpartum depression and in 50 percent of those cases, psychosis evolves. She likened it to being inside a bowl, unable to climb out from all sides.

Do you believe Lisette Bamenga deserved leniency for the murders of her kids because she was suffering from postpartum depression and psychosis?

[Image via Shutterstock/tlegend]