Jury selection began Monday for the New York trial of a mother accused of poisoning her 5-year-old son to death with salt, the Associated Press reported.
Lacey Spears, 27, is accused of poisoning her son with salt through a feeding tube into his stomach while he was at Westchester Medical Center, causing his sodium levels to spike which led to brain swelling and his eventual death in January 2014.
"This mother was intentionally feeding her child salt at toxic levels," prosecutor Doreen Lloyd said, according to the AP.
The official charge against Spears is murder "under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life," as well as manslaughter "while intending to cause serious physical injury."
Prosecutors say Spears, originally from Alabama, intentionally sickened her son Garnett-Paul Spears over the course of several years and across several states. She then sought online sympathy by posting thousands of social media updates about Garnett's worsening medical condition over the years, prosecutors allege.
"My Sweet Angel Is In The Hospital For The 23rd Time," Spears allegedly tweeted in November 2009. "Please Pray He Gets To Come Home Soon."
Internet searches on the dangers of sodium in children were also found on Spears' cellphone. Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary said prosecutors can use the searches as evidence, the AP reported.
Prosecutors can also use feeding bags that investigators said contained overwhelming traces of sodium, which Spears allegedly tried disposing of by telling a friend to "get rid of it and don't tell anybody."
Following Spears' June arrest in Kentucky, reports surrounding the case alluded to Spears having Munchausen syndrome by proxy, an illness that causes a caretaker to make a patient sick to gain attention.
But lawyers for Spears asked the judge to ban any mention of Munchausen, the AP reported. Prosecutors also don't intend to mention the disorder.
Spears faces 25 years to life if she is convicted.
