A mum accused of murdering her 18-month-old twins could face the death penalty.
Andrea Shaw, 23, claims the toddlers became sick and died after receiving flu shots and routine childhood vaccinations.
But prosecutors in Idaho say an autopsy revealed symptoms consistent with smothering and wrote that suffocation ‘is the only conceivable explanation’ for their deaths.
They told the court four factors in the case make execution the appropriate punishment – more than one murder committed; the killings were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel; that Shaw showed ‘utter disregard’ for human life; and that she would likely pose a continuing threat to society.
Shaw’s lawyer Joseph Filicetti called the submission ‘outrageous’.
He said: ‘They’re not going to be able to prove the underlying case beyond a reasonable doubt, so there’s not a chance the death penalty is going to come into play.’
Filicetti said the defence team will be filing a motion to dismiss the case.
The county coroner found the cause of death to be undetermined but consistent with hyperthermia or overheating, Filicetti said, but the coroner was not on the witness list for the grand jury.
It is not clear whether jurors were informed of his findings.
The pathologists who examined the twins also said their causes of death were undetermined, Filicetti said.
The prosecutor’s office wrote in court documents that the temperature in the twins’ room would often reach 100C, but that the children had survived high temperatures before and that their time of death didn’t correlate to the peak temperature of the day.
‘They don’t have any motive, they don’t have any backstory, they don’t have any confession … She didn’t do any of that, and they can’t prove she did any of it,’ Filicetti said.
The twins were found dead in their shared bed May 1, 2025, according to court records.
They had been vaccinated eight days earlier, and the day after their vaccinations Shaw took them to the emergency room, reporting that they were lethargic and felt feverish.
The doctor felt the symptoms were a reaction from the vaccinations, and the twins were given Tylenol and a popsicle and sent home, according to the court records.
A few days after the twins’ deaths, Shaw went on an internet show produced by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
He has not been affiliated with the group since December 2024, when he formally resigned as chairman to join President Donald Trump’s administration.
Medical experts point out that the childhood vaccines at issue — hepatitis A, influenza and DTaP — are safe and effective for kids and recommended by various medical groups.
Shaw is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought by Children’s Health Defense and others against the American Academy of Pediatrics, accusing the organisation of racketeering and lying about the safety of vaccinations.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it the ‘latest missive in a campaign targeting’ the academy and its ‘use of science-backed evidence in vaccine policy’.
The grand jury indicted Shaw on the murder charges in July, and she is being held without bond.
A trial has been set for January.
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