PAYETTE, Idaho (Court TV) — A judge swiftly denied a mother’s request to be released on a reduced bond as she faces murder charges, revoking the bond entirely.
Andrea Shaw appears at her arraignment on July 14, 2026. (Court TV)
Andrea Shaw, 23, has not yet entered a plea after a grand jury indicted her earlier this month on charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of her twin children, D.S. and T.S. At an arraignment on Tuesday, Andrea Shaw’s attorney, Joseph Filicetti, said defense lawyers planned to delay entering a plea until they have had a chance to review a transcript of the grand jury’s proceedings in the case.
Prosecutors have accused Andrea Shaw of suffocating the twins as they slept on May 5, 2025. Andrea Shaw maintains her innocence and is backed by family members, who claim that the children were actually killed by side effects from a vaccine.
On April 23, 2025, Andrea Shaw brought her children to the pediatrician for their 18-month well visit. At that visit, the children were given multiple vaccines, including Hepatitis A, DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) and a flu shot. Shaw’s mother-in-law, Wendy Shaw, submitted an affidavit to the court stating she was at the appointment and expressed concerns about the children receiving the flu shot because both she and her son, the children’s father, had previously reacted to the vaccine.
In the affidavit, which was submitted in support of a defense motion to reduce bond in the case, Wendy Shaw said that the defendant repeatedly sought medical care for her children in the days after the vaccines because they were lethargic, had diarrhea and appeared generally unwell. Her affidavit calls Andrea Shaw a victim alongside her children. “They trusted the advice of medical professionals and the general consensus that vaccines are safe,” she wrote. “Since the twins’ deaths, it is my belief that the police have been trying to find a crime in what was a tragic loss to our family from something entirely outside our control. Andrea is paying an enormous price for an accusation that is sensational but untrue.”
Filicetti echoed Wendy Shaw’s sentiments in court on Tuesday. “From what I’ve gleaned, the coroner has a different opinion as to cause of death than the prosecutor’s office. This is certainly a case in search of a crime. It’s not a crime in this case. I’m going to defend this case like she’s not guilty, because she is not guilty.” Filicetti continued, “After reviewing their evidence, I think release on her own recognizance would even be allowable in this case, but I’m not going to ask you to do that. I’m going to ask you to set a $100,000 bond with restrictions.”
“This is not a vaccine case,” prosecutor Michael Duke countered, as he asked for bond to be revoked completely. Duke said that three medical doctors examined the case file, all of whom ruled out vaccines as possible contributors to the children’s deaths. Suffocation, he said, “is the only reasonable explanation for why both would die at the same time, on the same night, in the same room, in the same bed.”
Andrea Shaw had asked for her $2 million bond to be reduced in large part because she gave birth five days before her arrest on June 25 and wants to be able to return home to care for her child. But prosecutors said when they filed the arrest warrant, they had no idea she had a newborn — and said the new information was a reason to revoke bond, not reduce it.
“I do have concerns,” Judge Kiley Stuchlik said, specifically citing the defendant’s newborn. “In the Court’s view, Ms. Shaw does pose a risk of safety to the other child.”
Stuchlik also explained in her ruling that there was no presumption of bond in Andrea Shaw’s case because she is charged with a capital crime; prosecutors have not yet announced whether they plan to seek the death penalty in her case.
