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Woman Accused Of Strangling Stepdaughter Over Bracelet Says She ‘Doesn’t Need A Lawyer,’ Wants To Rep Herself
Amanda Carmack is accused of choking her 10-year-old stepdaughter Skylea Carmack after getting becoming enraged the girl had taken a charm bracelet from another child in their home.
The Indiana woman accused of strangling her 10-year-old stepdaughter to death after becoming enraged over a charm bracelet is going to be representing herself in court.
Amanda Carmack, 34, reported her stepdaughter Skylea Rayn Carmack missing on Aug. 31. Her body was found days later in a plastic garbage bag inside a shed behind the family’s Gas City home.
Carmack allegedly admitted to killing Skylea after becoming irate she'd taken another child's charm bracelet, leading to her “choking her with her hands” before “she tied something around her neck,” according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Oxygen.com.
Carmack said during a Monday hearing she “doesn’t need a lawyer," and prefers to represent herself, Fox 59 in Indianapolis reports.
The stepmom was charged Friday with murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, strangulation, and domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury; prosecutors made it clear they are looking to have her locked up for life without the possibility of parole.
The afternoon that Skylea vanished, the same day investigators think she died, Carmack said they were working in the backyard when she realized Skylea "had taken a charm bracelet from one of the other children in the home,” according to the probable cause statement. After disciplining Skylea for that, Carmack originally told police Skylea ran off.
Authorities say she later admitted to slapping Sylea across the face with an open hand and eventually killing her.
“She stated she does not remember all of the details but she remembers being on top of her in the barn while she was on her back,” according to the statement. "She wouldn't explain why she had killed her other that she was very angry.”
Six other children lived in the home along but Skylea was the only one Carmack had no blood relation to. Three of those children are hers and the other three were her brother’s, according to the probable cause statement. Skylea was the biological daughter of Carmack's husband.
Some of those children allegedly told police that Carmack was a “strict disciplinarian” who physically abused them, forcing them to face a wall for hours as well as whipping them with a pink belt.