Woman Pleads Not Guilty to Killing 4 Sons
In a bedside arraignment held in a hospital room, Susan Eubanks pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that she murdered her four sons.
Eubanks, 33, is recuperating at Palomar Medical Center from an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound in her stomach. Prosecutors accused her of shooting sons Matthew Eubanks, 4, Brigham Eubanks, 6, Austin Eubanks, 7, and Brandon Armstrong, 14, in a rampage Sunday in her home in rural San Marcos.
San Diego County Municipal Judge William Draper refused to set bail and scheduled a court hearing Nov. 21. With tubes in her arms and down her throat, Eubanks has been unable to talk but has communicated by written statements.
“She has been communicating with us about her condition, asking, ‘Can you get me this? Can you get me that?’ ” said her court-appointed attorney, Vincent Garcia.
Hospital personnel who have tended Eubanks, a onetime surgical room employee at Palomar, say she has yet to show any emotion about the slayings, which authorities say came after an afternoon of drinking and Eubanks’ breakup with her boyfriend.
Prosecutor Giacoma Bucci said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made after the preliminary hearing.
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