SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- An Ohio woman attempted to commit suicide immediately after her conviction on charges that she abused her five adopted children, accusations she denied.
Clark County Sheriff's Office deputies were escorting 46-year-old Vonda Ferguson to a holding cell Friday after the guilty verdict when they noticed she had something in her mouth.
Sgt. Phil Sanders says deputies cleared a blue powder from her mouth, which she said were sleeping pills, and called an ambulance. Sanders said Ferguson, who never lost consciousness, told them she had the pills in her mouth in the courtroom and tried to kill herself because she wasn't guilty.
Prosecutors say she hit the children with hammers and sticks until they bled and burned them with irons between 2000 and 2004.
Ferguson testified that she only used mild forms of corporal punishment.
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