Reseda Mother Charged With Murdering Her 3 Young Children

LOS ANGELES, CA — Days after telling a reporter how she killed her three young children because she feared rings of pedophiles, a 30-year-old Reseda woman was charged Monday with their murders.

Liliana Carrillo is also facing an allegation of using a knife as a deadly and dangerous weapon on her 6-month-old daughter Sierra during the April 10 killings, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Relatives describe Carrillo as a mother suffering severe postpartum depression and increasingly paranoid delusions. According to the children's father and court records, he fought a desperate battle to protect the children from their mother with little help from child protective services and police in Los Angeles.

Their father, Eric Denton, had been granted custody of the children following a legal battle in which he raised grave concerns about Carrillo's mental health. He had expected the children to be turned over to him on April 11, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Court records reviewed by the Times and Orange County Register included allegations that Carrillo was suffering from postpartum depression and increasingly paranoid and delusional after failing to take prescribed medication.

Even as her husband sought aid in obtaining custody of his children, Carrillo also sought aid from authorities and was granted a temporary restraining order for her and her children through the Los Angeles County courts on March 12, which barred Denton from harassing, threatening or violent behavior.

In an interview in the Kern County jail, Carrillo told a reporter for NBC affiliate KGET what was going through her head when she said she drowned her children.

"I wasn't about to hand my children off to be further abused," she said.

Carrillo said she killed her daughter Sierra, 3-year-old daughter Joanna and 2-year-old son Terry "softly," telling the reporter, "I hugged them and I kissed them ... and I was apologizing the whole time. I promised I would protect them."

Carrillo is being held on $2 million bail. She told KGET she expected to spend the rest of her life in jail.

However, The L.A. County district attorney’s office will not be able to seek a sentence of life without parole following a conviction because Carrillo is not being charged with a special circumstance allegation for multiple murders per the reform policy of Dist. Atty. George Gascón.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office put a security hold on the children's autopsy reports, but initial reports from the scene indicated the children had been stabbed or bludgeoned.

The children's grandmother discovered their bodies.

Carrillo allegedly carjacked a silver Toyota pickup in the Bakersfield area before her arrest April 10 in the Ponderosa area of Tulare County, east of Porterville.

She was charged April 13 by the Kern County District Attorney's Office with carjacking, attempted carjacking and auto theft and transferred to that county's jail.

She has pleaded not guilty to those charges and her next hearing is set for Wednesday when a motion seeking to delay setting a preliminary hearing is expected to be heard.

The Los Angeles case is being prosecuted by the Family Violence Division. A date for arraignment has not yet been set.

District Attorney George Gascon said, "Our hearts go out to the family of these children who are coping with this tremendous loss. My office has reached out to the survivors to offer trauma-informed services during these incredibly difficult times."

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.