Judge dismisses charges against mother accused of killing 5-year-old son at UNC in 2017 for reason of insanity

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- An Orange County judge dismissed charges against a mother accused of killing her 5-year-old son and stabbing her husband in Chapel Hill in 2017.

Monday, the judge said the charges will be dropped for the reason of insanity.

"It is the unanimous opinion of the psychiatric experts that she was legally insane at the time of the offense," prosecutor Jeffrey Nieman said. "There wasn't really an argument to be made contrary of those opinions."

At the time of the murder in August 2017, University of North Carolina Police Department officers found Ebony Olowu and her husband Victor Olowu at their home in UNC family housing. Victor Olowu was a graduate student at the time and told 911 dispatchers his wife stabbed him repeatedly while he was asleep.

Officers said they found 5-year-old Israel Olowu unresponsive under the table with a large cut to his chest. The district attorney said officers then kicked in the locked bathroom door and found Ebony Olowu with a razor in her hand and pills on the floor, babbling incoherently about Satan.

In court, defense attorneys called Dr. George Corbin, a psychiatric expert who testified that Olowu has major depressive disorder with psychotic features. Corbin said he spent nine hours interviewing Olowu and said he believed the murder was motivated by mental illness.

Olowu's attorney said she had two miscarriages after Israel was born, which resulted in several suicide attempts.

Ebony Olowu will be sent to Central Regional Hospital. Her husband said he agreed with the judge's decision.