Corie Walsh, 40, pleaded not guilty at a preliminary hearing in Illinois, where she is accused of killing her two-year-old son, Barrett, and attempting suicide during an alleged psychotic episode. Her husband, Michael Walsh, attended the hearing despite prosecutors alleging that she had also plotted to poison him, reportedly amid a fixation on the Lindsay Clancy case.

Walsh’s lawyer, Andrea Lyon, said her family believes she was psychotic and had never previously been violent. The defence is seeking her release to a hospital for psychiatric treatment, while prosecutors argue she remains too dangerous because she could threaten her husband and three surviving children; a judge previously denied her release.