A father who tortured and killed his three-year-old son and four-year-old daughter has been sentenced to death. John DeBlase from Mobile, Alabama, was found guilty of two counts of murder in November for poisoning Natalie and Chase with antifreeze and strangling them. The 31-year-old and his wife Heather Keaton - who will also be tried for the killings in April - were then arrested after the children's bodies were dumped in a rural area in Mississippi in 2010. Chase's remains were found six months after he was killed.
The pair's biological mother, Corinne DeBlase,
wept silently as the court heard how the search for her children unfolded before he was sentenced on Thursday. According to AL.com Circuit Judge Rick Stout had two options in deciding DeBlase's fate: either life without possibility of parole or death by lethal injection.
He told the court that the killings were 'especially heinous, atrocious and cruel,' and included 'completely consciousless, pitiless torture of the victims.' He then sentenced DeBlase to death after it was suggested by the jury. In a bid to save his own life, DeBlase addressed the judge before sentencing and said: 'I am not going to beg for mercy, I'm going to ask for mercy. I'm going to ask for my life. Your honor, I love my kids.'
During the trial John DeBlase's attorneys argued that Keaton's harsh discipline tactics lead to the children's deaths, but prosecutors said DeBlase likely killed the children to end their suffering.
'I don't think there's any doubt that the person who had the motive and hatred was Heather Keaton,' defense attorney Glenn Davidson said during his closing arguments Tuesday.
'She had no regard for the children and evidence showed she had no concern for their safety or their well-being. She was consumed with jealousy of Natalie's relationship with her father. When she couldn't control the children, she killed them.' Earlier in the trial, Corrine DeBlase said she had given up custody of her daughter Natalie, four, and three-year-old son Chase to John DeBlase in 2008 because she thought he was a 'good father'. 'He was their father, he was supposed to protect them. That's what a father is supposed to do,' she told the jury. She added: 'Nobody can blame me more than I can blame myself. I know there are things I could have done then. I was their mother I should have done something.'
Mrs DeBlase said she had been forced to give up custody of her 'well-mannered' children after she lost her job and home, and her marriage collapsed. She said that her ex-husband mainly treated Natalie like 'his little princess', but had once 'popped her in her mouth' when she was suffering from a night terror, according to AL.com.
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