A lawyer fainting is not what anyone expected at Ebony Wilkerson's hearing Tuesday.
Wilkerson's attorney, Julie Morris fainted while she was question a defense expert. Deputies rushed to help her until paramedics arrived.
She was ok, but the disruption prompted Judge Leah Case to end the defense’s side of the hearing, and allow the state to start presenting its case.
The hearing will determine if Wilkerson will be set free or go to a mental institution.
The state argues Wilkerson should be committed because she had issues in 2005, hearing voices telling her to kill herself and her family and jump into a body of water.
On March 4, nine years later, investigators said Ebony Wilkerson, who was pregnant at the time, drove her minivan and three children, ages 3, 9 and 10, into the ocean on Daytona Beach.
Her defense said she had psychotic episodes then and is now in remission, that she no longer is threat to herself or her children.
"That the symtoms of her illness were in remission and if she was to be granted bond, she was psychiatrically stable, not a risk to herself or others," testified Dr. Jeffrey Danzinger, the defense witness.
Wilkerson was 27 weeks pregnant at the time. She gave birth in jail.
Danzinger believes her pregnancy played a part of her delusion and hearing voices in her head.
We learned Wilkerson experienced similar psychotic episodes in 2005, and she was pregnant then too. Her defense said she should be set free and reunited with her children.
But the State disagrees.
Dr. William Meadows, also a psychiatrist, testified she did not completely heal from 2005 because she failed to seek proper treatment. Meadows said Wilkerson may be a threat to her family and herself unless she has long term treatment.
"In my opinion she meets the criteria for commitment as a manifestly dangerous person due to mental illness based on the totality of the information." said Meadows.
Wilkerson's defense is scheduled for Wednesday to pick up where it left off before her attorney fainted.