Indeed, the case of Deanna LaJune Laney evokes dark memories of that of Andrea Yates, the Houston mother serving a life sentence in prison, who admitted to drowning her five children in the family bathtub two years ago. Laney, a 38-year-old homemaker from New Chapel Hill in east Texas, admitted to a 911 dispatcher and deputies last week that she’d crushed the heads of her two young sons with rocks and severely injured a third while her husband was asleep. She has been charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
A friend of Laney’s says nothing seemed amiss on Friday, May 9–just two days before Mother’s Day–as Laney chatted amiably with a neighbor about his garden. But hours later, just after midnight, she called 911 and told the dispatcher that she killed her three sons and that she “bashed their heads in with a rock,” according to the affidavit used to charge Laney and obtained by NEWSWEEK. A horrified deputy found Laney in the woods outside her home wearing blood-spattered pajamas. He later found 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke laying in a “shadowy corner” of the family’s yard, dressed only in their underwear with rocks the size of dinner plates on top of them. A third son, 14-month-old Aaron, was found still alive in his crib, but with massive head injuries and his head covered with a pillow. He is recovering at a Dallas hospital.
When asked by a deputy why she killed her children, Laney said, “I had to,” according to the affidavit. She told the dispatcher that God had told her to. But why she believed that has those who know her at a loss.
Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith says that while in jail, Laney has at times been calm and straightfaced, other times curled up in a fetal position sobbing, and sometimes singing church hymns and praising God out loud. Despite her erratic behavior, Laney is not receiving any mental health care or medication, Smith tells NEWSWEEK. But she has been seen by a mental-health counselor hired by her lawyer and she remains on suicide watch, he says.
“She was the sweetest person you ever met,” Dawn Mayne, a friend and former neighbor tells NEWSWEEK. “I can’t make any sense of it. The Dee I knew would never do that.”
Like Yates, Laney is a devout Christian woman who home schooled her children and seemed absorbed in their lives. After teaching them in the mornings, Laney often spent afternoons with them riding their two horses or playing on their large 5-acre lot. Just a few weeks ago, Mayne says, she watched Laney teach one of her sons how to ride a mini motorcycle, her long legs dangling from the rear. She loved to bake, and often brought neighbors cakes and cookies. “She was just a wonderful mom,” says Mayne. “Who missed the warning signs? Were there warning signs?”
Says Gary Bell, pastor of the First Assembly of God Church, where Laney sang in the choir, “We all believe as family that it wasn’t our Dee that did this to her children. We are in for a long and rocky road.”
Laney’s husband, Keith, owns an air compressor repair shop near the family’s home and coached his sons’ little league teams. “He is just a hard-working, good Christian man,” says Mayne. “He always spent time with those boys, taking them fishing or out to the farm.” Last week, Keith Laney remained at his youngest son’s bedside in Dallas. He and other family members have not spoken to the media. A funeral for Joshua and Luke was held on Saturday morning.
Laney’s high school yearbooks depict a smart, athletic girl with short hair and a big smile. She was on the volleyball and basketball teams when she attended Chapel High School just outside Tyler. During her senior year at the larger Tyler High School she was a member of the National Honor Society and president of a marketing group called Distributive Education. “She always smiled,” former classmate Steve Trammell tells NEWSWEEK. “She was just one of those sweet girls that had good morals. She’s one of the last people I would have expected of being capable of this.”
Laney’s attorney F.R. “Buck” Files Jr. says her mental health will be central to her defense. “Everything about this case raises the issue of mental competency,” he said after Laney’s arraignment hearing on Monday.
George Parnham, Yates’ attorney, says he’s spoken with Files and warned him about the pitfalls of the Texas insanity law, if he should pursue it. Even if Files could prove that Laney was mentally ill at the time of the killings, he still would have to prove that she did not know the difference between right and wrong. In the Yates case, the jury found that although there was widespread evidence of mental illness, her call to 911 and her statements to police showed she knew her actions were wrong. Laney also called 911 and spoke with a dispatcher for 20 minutes.
“I’m sure you’re going to hear the same prosecution,” Parnham tells NEWSWEEK. “This is Andrea revisited. And this will happen again and again until we take real steps to understand mental illness and to look for indicators.” Meanwhile, Yates’ appeal is slowly moving ahead, Parnham says.
His client remains behind bars–ironically just 30 miles away from where Laney is confined-and has lapsed in and out of psychosis. Most recently, he says, she was diagnosed with bi-polar depression and continues to be heavily medicated. He and others say Yates spends her time working in the prison garden, mopping floors and doing laundry. “Reality has set in,” Parnham says.
