Insanity plea entered to slaying charge in girl’s death

A 27-year-old woman pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges she killed her 6-year-old daughter with a pair of scissors.

Danielle Slaughter on Thursday entered the plea during an arraignment hearing before Judge Melisa De La Garza.

Slaughter remained jailed in the Clark County Detention Center without bail.

The insanity plea is an affirmative defense under the law, meaning Slaughter's lawyers with their medical experts will have to convince a jury of it. The plea means that Slaughter can expect to be interviewed by the prosecution's own medical experts.

Authorities said Slaughter was possibly delusional last month when she stabbed her daughter, Kyla Franks, to death with a pair of scissors.

Kyla was a kindergartner at Bell Elementary School, and her mother was in her first semester at the College of Southern Nevada.

According to a Las Vegas police report, Slaughter said she stabbed Kyla after hearing her daughter speak in an "evil" voice. She told detectives she had felt a dark presence in her home for several days.

Slaughter also told police she recently had begun taking the weight-loss supplement Hydroxycut.

About 6 p.m., shortly after the killing, Slaughter was found running naked on Vegas Drive near Jones Boulevard, about two miles from her home. She was screaming, and her hands were covered in blood. She was not injured.

"The blood was from the Lamb of God," Slaughter told the officers who found her.

Police weren't able to connect Slaughter to her daughter's death for more than two hours until Slaughter's live-in boyfriend came home, near Vegas Drive and Tenaya Way, and found the girl's body.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@review journal.com or 702-380-1039.