AUBURN-

The mother of Roman and Ruslan Glukhoy broke her usual courtroom reserve, and declared her love Wednesday.

“I love my son,” she said.

But the question is, which son is she most worried about?

Even in their mugshots, the 19-year-old identical twin murder suspects look nearly indistinguishable. But in the shell game that is distinguishing Roman from Ruslan Glukhoy, everything is at stake.

“This puts the death penalty as a potential option. Our office will not make that determination whether or not to seek the death penalty until we review the complete investigation,” Supervising Deputy District Attorney David Tellman said.

A capital punishment sentence could only be handed down to one of the twins-  whichever one, if either, was found guilty of being behind the wheel in the police chase and fatal collision that killed 14-year-old Anahi Tovar and her father, Jose.

In the chaos of that scene, if first responders and police weren’t absolutely certain to keep straight who they were treating and who they were still chasing, defense attorneys could get acquittals for both Roman and Ruslan.

They both plead not guilty to all charges today.

“I would surmise from the charging decision of the District Attorney that it’s their believe Ruslan was the driver,” David Cohen, defense attorney for Roman Glukhoy, said.

The twins now each have their own, privately funded, defense attorneys.

Yuri Merkushev, who isn’t facing murder charges but is facing charges for what police say was involvement in a burglary scheme with the Glukhoy twins, also appeared in court today.

He was previously released on bail, and also plead not guilty to all charges Wednesday.