PHOENIX — Arizona will seek the death penalty for Rachel Henry, who police said methodically killed her three children in January. The children were all under the age of 4.
According to court documents, Henry allegedly began smothering each child, starting with the 1-year-old girl, when their aunt went to pick the children's father up from work around 2 p.m. on Jan. 20.
“I won’t ever get to see them smile, laugh," Pedro Rios, the father of the three children, said after they were killed and Henry was arrested.
In the notice to seek the death penalty, the state said it will lay out the aggravating factors in its case.
The details of the killings are gruesome.
While Henry was allegedly smothering the first child, the 1-year-old girl was kicking and the 3-year-old boy yelled "no" at her in an effort to get her to stop.
The boy then began punching Henry but to no avail.
Henry then allegedly chased the 3-year-old boy around the room until the aunt and father returned to the house around 3 p.m.
"I would ask, 'Where's Miraya?' And [Rachel] was like, 'I put them down for a nap,'" Rios recalled.
"I didn't think anything of it. Every day, they take a nap," Rios said. "What type of person in their right mind would think different?"
Police say Henry would later confess to smothering Miraya in the other room.
She would then allegedly proceed to kill the next two children, smothering them while singing nursery rhymes to them.
In early September, the great aunt of the murdered children, Pearla Rebolledo, set up a video visit with Henry. On the call she confronted Henry about the killings.
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"I didn’t know what was going on," Henry said. "I told you I felt like I was losing my mind, because I didn’t understand why you guys, why everyone was acting the way they were. I didn’t, I was on drugs. I was freaking out and I didn’t know what to do. I know I was scared."
"That is the point I kept telling you. I felt like I was losing my mind," Henry said. "I didn’t know what was going on, I tried to talk to someone they said I was stupid or I scared, and I didn’t know what I was talking about."
However, when pressed more by Rebolledo, Henry gave another reason for her actions.
“Do you know how bad I wanted to go to the store? I wanted to go outside. I wanted to do this and I wanted to do that. You said I couldn’t be seen by Francisco. You said I couldn’t go to the store because of the babies and this and that. I was trapped in the house and I felt like I was going crazy,” Henry said.
Henry has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.
Zane, Mireya, and Catalaya were laid to rest in Paden, Oklahoma, a town close to where the family is originally from, in February.