A New Jersey mother accused of killing her two young children at her Ocean County home last year has been found not guilty by reason of insanity, a judge ruled Tuesday. Naomi Elkins was charged last year with two counts of murder in the killings of her 3-year-old and 1-year-old daughters. She admitt ed that on June 25 she drowned both kids in separate bathtubs at her Lakewood Township home. She also confessed to stabbing the younger child, authorities said. According to charging documents, Elkins later told investigators that she’d carried out the killings for “religious purposes.” Following the deaths, her defense lawyers said in a statement that Elkins had “a well-documented history of severe mental illness, which has absolutely played a major role in these devastating events.” On Tuesday, during a bench trial at the Ocean County Courthouse in Toms River, a psychologist testified that Elkins believed that by killing her children, “she would be destroying all the evil in the world,” the Asbury Park Press reported. After reviewing evidence submitted to him by the prosecution and the defense, Judge Guy P. Ryan ruled that Elkins was responsible for the death of her two children, but found her not guilty by reason of insanity. Ryan ordered Elkins, a former preschool teacher, be committed to a secure psychiatric hospital for two lifetimes — one for each child. Prosecutors agreed with the ruling, saying the judge’s finding was “not even a close call.” “This was a tragedy of epic proportions, which Ms. Elkins will be forced to carry with her for the rest of her life,” said Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer. ...read more read less