Overview

• A jury was empaneled and Justice Geoffrey Venning recorded not-guilty pleas after Hakyung Lee remained silent; she is representing herself with two standby lawyers.
• Prosecutors began outlining their case, saying toxicology detected an antidepressant prescribed to Lee in both children, while the exact cause of death remains undetermined.
• The judge told jurors they will likely need to decide whether Lee was legally insane at the time of the alleged killings under the Crimes Act.
• The children’s remains were discovered in August 2022 by a family who bought an abandoned Papatoetoe storage unit at auction; police say the buyers had no connection to the deaths.
• Lee was arrested in South Korea in September 2022 after an Interpol notice and was extradited two months later, with South Korean officials saying they provided important evidence.