The attempted capital murder trial of a Plano woman accused of dropping her 22-month-old daughter from a second-floor balcony began this morning in Collin County.

In her opening statement, prosecutor Jo'Dee Neil told the jury that Padmaja Enjeti looked the child in the eyes as she dropped her from the balcony of her home.

But defense attorney Howard Shapiro said the act never happened.

"It was all a psychotic experience the defendant was having that day," Mr. Shapiro told the jury.

If convicted, Ms. Enjeti could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Ms. Enjeti, 38, was ordered into mental-health treatment by the courts after the November 2007 occurrence.

But Mr. Shapiro said before the start of the trial that he would not present an insanity defense.

"When a full revelation of the facts is made known, the jury will see that she could not have done what she's accused of doing," he said.

One key piece of evidence that's expected to be presented at the trial will be the 911 call Ms. Enjeti made to Plano police on the morning of Nov. 28, when she reported that she had dropped her baby from the second-floor balcony.

"My daughter is dying," she told the 911 operator. "I tried to kill her."

At one point during the call, she told the 911 operator to hold on while she carried the child back upstairs, dropping her a second time onto the hardwood floor 13 to 14 feet below, according to police.

"I did it again," Ms. Enjeti told the dispatcher, according to testimony at a bail-reduction hearing.

When police arrived at her home, Ms. Enjeti told them that she was frustrated and angry because the child had been fussy that morning and refused to eat breakfast.

The child suffered bruises but no life-threatening injuries, according to testimony at the bail hearing.

After Ms. Enjeti was arrested, the child and her 8-year-old brother were placed in foster care. At a custody hearing about two weeks later, a Collin County judge returned the children to their father, Sivaram Enjeti.

Mr. Enjeti told the judge that his wife had been suffering hallucinations and was taking the anti-psychotic drug Haldol.

Under conditions set by the court, Ms. Enjeti was not allowed contact with the children unless approved by a judge. She was also ordered into treatment at Timberlawn Mental Health System in Dallas.

After being treated at Timberlawn, Ms. Enjeti was transferred to a Dallas residential center and has had no contact with her children since the incident, Mr. Shapiro said.