A judge will announce her decision Tuesday on a treatment program for a mother who drove her minivan with three kids inside into the ocean.
On March 4, 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.
Wilkerson, who was 27 weeks pregnant at the time, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and child abuse. She gave birth to her fourth child in jail.
Last week Wilkerson plead not guilty by reason of insanity to three counts of child abuse and prosecutors dropped the three counts of attempted murder.
Now a judge will determine whether she needs to be hospitalized for treatment or can be released with court supervision.
State prosecutors maintain Ebony Wilkerson is still a threat to the public, mainly her children, whom she has yet to see since that March evening.
On Wednesday, doctors called by Wilkerson's defense team disagreed.
Wilkerson took the stand Wednesday afternoon and said she knew she had a mental illness, and she felt more stable.
"I feel like I want to do better for myself now that I'm aware of my mental illness," Wilkerson said. "Now that I'm aware what I'm dealing with, now that I have that opportunity to do something about it.”
As we learned last week, all of the doctors for both sides agreed Wilkerson suffered some sort of psychotic event leading up to her driving into the ocean.
But since then, she's been on a regimen of anti-psychotic medications as well as continued therapy.
Doctors called to the stand told the judge Wilkerson has continued to express her desire to maintain her mental stability and to see her children, three of which are still in state custody and an infant son now with her husband.
When asked what involuntary hospitalization would do, Forensic Psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Danzinger was asked about involuntary hospitalization and what it would do.
“She's not mentally ill now. Her symptoms are under control. She's compliant with treatment, trying to do everything possible to stay out of the hospital, follow the law and get her kids back. In my opinion, now is she falls short of the criteria to be involuntarily hospitalized,” said Danzinger.
Dr. Danzinger went on to say if she were to be hospitalized, they'd most likely be back in court a few months later with doctors arguing for her release.
Wilkerson is scheduled to undergo a tubal ligation tomorrow so she won't have any more children. The judge wanted to give her the extra time in case there were some complications from that procedure.