Mom charged with murdering 2-year-old child ordered held in custody

An Illinois mom charged with murdering her 2-year-old son was denied a request to be released in her first court appearance Tuesday.

Corie Walsh, 40, appeared in Will County Court in Joliet, Illinois, in handcuffs and shackles. She put her head down and cried at times during the hearing, according to ABC Chicago station WLS-TV.

"I can't make this decision out of compassion or empathy," Judge Amy Bertani said in her decision to keep Walsh detained. "There is clear and convincing evidence that she is involved in [a] first-degree murder offense and is a clear and present threat to husband and other children."

Walsh, a mom of four, faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of her 2-year-old son, Barrett Walsh, on Sept. 1.

According to the state's evidence presented at Tuesday's hearing, officers arrived at the home in Frankfort, Illinois, on the afternoon of Sept. 1, where they say they found a neighbor performing CPR on Barrett. The neighbor alleged they found the boy cold and without a pulse in the family's basement and called 911, according to the filing.

Walsh was found upstairs and allegedly told officers she had killed the toddler because he was the "devil" and the "Antichrist."

The neighbor told officers she had found Walsh with a knife, and Walsh told the neighbor "she was trying to kill herself."

According to prosecutors, an 8-month-old infant was also located unsupervised in the home but was unharmed.

Walsh is being represented in the case by Robert Kerr and Andrea Lyon, who was previously a co-lead defense counsel for Casey Anthony, a Florida woman found not guilty in 2011 of murdering her 2-year-old daughter.

In a statement to ABC News on Sunday, Lyon said her client was suffering from a psychotic episode" when she allegedly killed her son.

"This is a tragedy for the Walsh family, all of whom are mourning the loss of this child," Lyon's statement said. "It is also a tragedy in that Corie herself was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time this happened. It is our hope that through a thorough presentation and investigation of the facts, that all of us will come to see this heartbreak for what it is."

Neither Walsh's husband nor their three other children were injured. Walsh's husband and her mother were not in court on Tuesday because they were attending Barrett's funeral, according to Kerr.

Kerr said in court that Walsh's husband and mother asked him to share their "unwavering support of Corie."

According to a petition to deny pre-trial release obtained by WLS over the weekend, Walsh was "actively discussing" the Lindsay Clancy case on text messages up to three-and-a-half hours before her child was discovered.

Clancy pleaded not guilty to three murder charges for the deaths of her three young children at the family's home in Duxbury, a Boston suburb, on Jan. 24, 2023. Her trial ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4, after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict following more than a week of deliberations.

Walsh is next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 24.