East Grand Forks Mother Gets 12 Years For Attempted Murder

An East Grand Forks mother was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for trying to kill herself and her two young daughters in 2008.

Breezetta Etienne pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder earlier this year and was sentenced today.

Etienne's defense attorney asked that the court depart from the standard sentence, put Etienne on probabtion and allow her to go to a facility in Minneapolis to get treatment for bi-polar disorder. He argued that Etienne has a serious mental illness that warrants a departure from the sentencing guidlines.

Prosecuting attorney Scott Buehler argued that bi-polar is not a serious enough mental illness to grant the departure, saying that Etienne made the choice to try to kill her children and taunted her husband by text messages. He suggest the harshest sentence available.

In the end the judge sentenced her to more than 12 years in prison.