Texas Cases of Mothers Who Kill Their Children, Religion, & Their Husbands
Baby's killing draws attention to church
07:12 AM CST on Tuesday, December 7, 2004
By JENNIFER EMILY and TIARA M. ELLIS / The Dallas Morning News
PLANO – About 200 regulars sat in padded folding chairs in the brick church in east Plano, worshipping in jeans, suits, boots and heels. There were no hymnals, but most adults brought their own well-worn Bibles.
Their leader, Doyle Davidson, told them that Water of Life Church has been flung into the spotlight and that God wanted them to seize the moment to spread the word of God.
"He is raising me up so the metroplex will know who I am," Mr. Davidson told his followers Sunday morning.
Mr. Davidson says he did not know Dena Schlosser and her husband, John, well. He and others say the couple attended sporadically since church records show they first donated money in June 2002.
Authorities say Mrs. Schlosser killed her 10-month-old daughter last month by cutting off the child's arms. Mr. Davidson said the curiosity that followed about his church and its beliefs can only spread his message, which is broadcast on television.
Mr. Davidson, 72, is a self-described prophet and apostle. He aligns those who question him with Satan.
For much of Sunday's service, Mr. Davidson spoke about himself. His voice at times carried an aw-shucks cadence and other times the sharpness of authority. He is known to lay hands on church members to drive out the devil. The church has services every Wednesday and twice on Sundays.
"This probably sounds like an ego trip, and I don't care anymore," he said later of his methods. "I've been pounded on so many times by unbelievers."
'Why I'm hated'
Mr. Davidson, who prefers "Doyle" to the title of reverend or pastor, knows his teachings aren't mainstream or always well liked. He boils down to two reasons "why I'm hated."
The first is that women – many of whom he calls Jezebels – should not question their husbands.
Second, he believes that the Ten Commandments are "not made for the righteous man, but for the lawless, the disobedient." He considers righteousness "living by faith, by the spirit and doing exactly what Jesus said to do."
Mr. Davidson teaches that doctors aren't necessary because people can be healed if their faith is "in the right place." He doesn't take medicine but says God "won't condemn you for going to a physician."
When paramedics arrived at Mrs. Schlosser's apartment Nov. 22, she was found covered in her daughter's blood, holding a knife and listening to religious hymns. The night before, she told her husband she wanted to "give her child to God," according to court records.
Mrs. Schlosser's stepfather, Mick Macaulay, has stopped short of blaming the church for her actions, but he said the extreme beliefs may have affected her mental health.
Mrs. Schlosser suffered from postpartum depression after her daughter's home birth in January. Her condition was diagnosed and treated after Child Protective Services investigated her on a neglect complaint when she left her infant daughter, Margaret, alone in the apartment.
"I'm not saying that anybody suggested, 'Go cut your baby's arms off,' " said Mr. Macaulay, a mental health counselor who lives in Canada with Mrs. Schlosser's mother, Connie. "This diminishing of women, this diminishing of women's powers, women's importance, referring to women as Jezebels, I think, further undermines an already fragile ego state that Dena's experiencing. I think it presses her to subordinate herself and forgo her own judgment.
"I look at Doyle as being one of the major influences in this whole thing."
Dr. Philip Korenman, the media relations committee chair for the North Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians, said: "In my opinion, this is a medical issue, not a religious one.
"I'm sure when people are distressed, they are going to the places that they know to try to get support and relief. And that's not a bad thing. The hope is that they are going to be speaking to some people who recognize and guide them to the right places to get help," said Dr. Korenman, who has a private practice in Plano.
Ole Anthony, who heads Trinity Foundation, a watchdog for television evangelists, said his organization hasn't received any major complaints about Water of Life. He also said that though Mr. Davidson certainly has "a very strong personality," he has seen nothing to suggest any wrongdoing.
"It wouldn't be fair, I think, to call him a cult," Mr. Anthony said.
Cults typically involve brainwashing and physical restraint, he said, and Water of Life does not.
Mr. Davidson said that those who disagree with him, along with Catholics, Baptists and Methodists, belong to cults.
A member's view
Member Jack Turquette was disturbed to hear that Mrs. Schlosser's parents placed some responsibility for the child's death on the church. He said Water of Life and its practices had nothing to do with what happened.
"I really didn't appreciate that. You can't say, 'Hey, my stepdaughter's mentally ill,' then start pointing fingers. She either is or isn't," he said.
Ralph Edge, one of three ministers who helps Mr. Davidson, said the Schlossers weren't active in the church beyond attending services. Mrs. Schlosser mostly remained in the fellowship hall along with other parents who had small children, where they could watch the service on a television.
"That's mainly where they stayed," said Mr. Edge, who is also Mr. Davidson's nephew. "They kept to themselves, mostly."
Mr. Schlosser's personal Web site contains Bible quotations and a link to Mr. Davidson's Web site. On another site, he writes that his interests are "GOD's plan for my life." Mr. Schlosser has declined to comment through the ordeal.
Mr. Davidson was a veterinarian when, he said, God called him to ministry in 1969. He began preaching in Missouri the following year. In 1972, he came to North Texas. He ministered at the First United Methodist Church in McKinney in 1977 and formed Water of Life Ministries three years later.
He moved his congregation to east Plano in 1981, where it bought the building from another church. His ministry went on radio, then television. The services are broadcast in several states and on the Web.
Mr. Davidson said he was arrested on a charge of public intoxication after he tried to cast the devil out of a former member. He said he will be found not guilty because he was not intoxicated. Plano police could not provide information Monday about the arrest.
No other criminal record could be found.
Chris Wilkins moved his wife and three kids from Indiana in 1999 after seeing Mr. Davidson on television. He said he had attended different churches but felt that pastors were telling him to raise his hands and praise God so they could reach into his pockets. But that isn't the case at Water of Life, he said.
Mr. Wilkins recalled being rid of devils on one of his first visits to the church.
"I had my hands up and I was worshipping God, and they came screaming out of me. It's the only way I could explain it. And the devils just didn't want to go. I could picture their little hands pulling on my body and not wanting to let go," Mr. Wilkins said. "Now nobody saw this. It was through the spirit. But all I could see was a glass tube full of cold air that went all the way toward the ceiling."
Becky Forrest and her husband, Ronald, regularly drive in from Kilgore in East Texas to attend services at Water of Life. It's the spiritual base that draws them. They said Mr. Davidson takes his direction from the Bible and God.
"I just believe Doyle is an apostle prophet and directed by God," Ms. Forrest said. "And what he teaches from the pulpit is strictly from the Bible. It's definitely the word of God. I don't think you find that too much in other churches."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
E-mail jemily@dallasnews.com
and tellis@dallasnews.com
Plano mom's links to church explored
Relatives, pastor differ on what drove woman before her child died
01:07 AM CST on Friday, December 10, 2004
By TIARA M. ELLIS and JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
Church leader Doyle Davidson says he barely knew Dena Schlosser. But family members say the Plano woman was a fanatic, speaking about him like a star-struck admirer.
"All she did was talk about him. 'Aunt Judy, you got to get on the Internet and see him, listen to him,' " Judy Buczyna said. "And he said he didn't know her. Every word she spoke was about him."
It was that obsession, her faith and postpartum psychosis, family members say, that drove Mrs. Schlosser on Nov. 22, the day her 10-month-old daughter's arms were cut off. Mrs. Schlosser is charged with the child's death.
Mr. Davidson said he doesn't manipulate or persuade people in his position as pastor of Water of Life Church in Plano.
"It's ridiculous. I have no power over people," Mr. Davidson said.
He said he is being blamed unfairly.
"This is a spiritual attack. And I know that. So these people don't bother me," Mr. Davidson said. "I do not affect people's lives. It's the Gospel that ... affects them."
Leslie Hunt, executive director of the Postpartum Resource Center of Texas, said it is possible that Mr. Davidson did not realize that he captivated Mrs. Schlosser.
"People develop obsessions with other people all the time that they didn't know about. He's up on a stage and a self-proclaimed prophet. He was filling a psychological void for her that needed to be filled and became larger than life," Ms. Hunt said.
Dr. Philip Korenman, who has a private psychiatry practice in Plano, said preachers have a responsibility to recognize when medical professionals are necessary and "when it's beyond the bounds of increased spirituality."
Mrs. Schlosser's mother and stepfather, Connie and Mick Macaulay, have described phone conversations with Mrs. Schlosser dominated by Mr. Davidson.
Mrs. Schlosser spoke to her parents the day before she admitted to a 911 operator that she had cut her daughter Margaret's arms off as hymns played in the background. They said she said that she could no longer be close to her family if they did not believe in Mr. Davidson.
Church leaders say Ms. Schlosser and her husband, John, sporadically attended Water of Life. Mr. Schlosser has a link to Mr. Davidson's site on his personal Web site. Mr. Schlosser has declined to comment.
The Schlossers' daughters, ages 6 and 9, are in temporary custody of Child Protective Services, while officials evaluate where they should live. Authorities have said Mr. Schlosser did not protect Margaret from his wife when she told him the evening before the child's death that she wanted to "give her child to God."
Like Mrs. Schlosser's parents, Ms. Buczyna said the church drew her niece away from her family.
"I feel like the whole thing has alienated Dena from her support," she said.
Ms. Buczyna, 51, said the church should be investigated.
"If they come up clean, if they're going to pray, then they need to pray about how they had someone in their church who they weren't there to help," she said.
Mrs. Schlosser's attorney, David Haynes, said he is looking at the church's role in his client's life.
Mr. Davidson is known to "lay hands" on people to heal them and says he can draw the devil out of them.
He said he was doing just that at Lisa and Harold Staton's Plano home in September when he was arrested for public intoxication.
In a Plano arrest report, Ms. Staton said Mr. Davidson threw her on the couch, sat on top of her and started smothering and choking her. Her husband, Harold, saw Mr. Davidson sitting on his wife and pulled him off.
Mr. Davidson told police that Mrs. Staton was upset with him and scratched him. He said she told him he "was possessed by Satan," the report said.
"Davidson was raising his voice stating that Lisa and Harold Staton were both fired from their church for calling the police," the report states.
Police noted that Mrs. Staton had redness around her chest and throat; and Mr. Davidson had scratches on his arms and neck.
Police officers called to the scene noticed "a very strong odor of an alcoholic beverage" on Mr. Davidson's breath. He paid a $352 fine.
The Statons could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Davidson told his congregation Sunday that he was not intoxicated and he will be found not guilty.
He said the woman was rebellious and he was trying to draw the devil out of her.
Some in the congregation said Mr. Davidson has saved marriages and helped put their lives back on track with the practice.
Ms. Buczyna, who is Mrs. Macaulay's younger sister, spent time with Mrs. Schlosser when she was growing up. She baby-sat her, and later Mrs. Schlosser watched her aunt's children. She said Mrs. Schlosser was a "good role model" to her younger cousins because she was studious and generous.
She said there is no way Mrs. Schlosser would hurt her own baby out of anger.
"She's not a monster mom. There has not been one moment in her life that I can remember where she lost her temper and had gotten upset," Ms. Buczyna said. "We love her. I wish we could turn back the clock."
Email tellis@dallasnews.com
and jemily@dallasnews.com
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/121004dnmetplanomom.a08b.html
Letter to the Editor- Dallas Morning News
Plano church all wet
I wasn't surprised to learn that the woman who cut her baby's arms off belonged to Doyle Davidson's Water of Life Church.
I was married to a man who joined Water of Life when I was pregnant with our third child. I was leery of his newfound religion when I suddenly became a Jezebel who was filled with evil spirits, in my husband's eyes.
Thankfully, my divorce decree bars my children's father from taking them to the Water of Life Church. And my sweet daughter will feel free to marry the nice Jewish boy down the street when she grows up, if she wishes.
Alison North, Richardson
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/121104dnediltrs.97b8a.html
Profile of Andrea Yates
Infanticide
From Charles Montaldo,
Education and Achievements: Andrea (Kennedy) Yates was born on July 2, 1964 in Houston, Tex. She graduated from Milby High School in Houston in 1982. She was the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team and an officer in the National Honor Society. She completed a two-year pre-nursing program at the University of Houston and then graduated in 1986 from the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston. She worked as a registered nurse at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1986 until 1994.
Andrea Meets Rusty Yates: Andrea and Rusty Yates, both 25, met at their apartment complex in Houston. Andrea, who was usually reserved, initiated the conversation. Andrea had never dated anyone until she turned 23 and prior to meeting Rusty she was healing from a broken relationship. They eventually moved in together and spent much of their time involved in religious study and prayer. They were married on April 17, 1993. They shared with their guests that they planned on having as many children as nature provided.
Andrea Called Herself "Fertile Myrtle": In their eight years of marriage, the Yates had five children; four boys and one girl. Andrea stopped jogging and swimming when she became pregnant with her second child. Friends say that she became reclusive. The decision to home-school the children seemed to feed her isolation.
The Yates Children:
Feb. 26, 1994 – Noah Yates, Dec. 12, 1995 - John Yates, Sept. 13, 1997 - Paul Yates, Feb. 15, 1999 - Luke Yates, and on Nov. 30, 2000 - Mary Yates was the last child to be born.
Sponso
Their Living Conditions: Rusty accepted work in Florida in 1996 and the family moved into a 38-foot travel trailer in Seminole, FL While in Florida, Andrea got pregnant, but miscarried. In 1997 they returned to Houston and lived in their trailer because Rusty wanted to "live light." The next year. Rusty decided to purchase a 350-square-foot, renovated bus which became their permanent home. Luke was born bringing the number of children to four. Living conditions were cramped and Andrea's insanity began to surface.
Michael Woroniecki: Michael Woroniecki was a traveling minister from whom Rusty purchased their bus and whose religious views had influenced both Rusty and Andrea. Rusty only agreed with some of Woroniecki's ideas but Andrea embraced the extremist sermons. He preached, "the role of women is derived from the sin of Eve and that bad mothers who are going to hell create bad children who will go to hell." Andrea was so totally captivated by Woroniecki that Rusty and Andrea's family grew concerned.
Andrea’s First Suicide Attempt : On June 16 1999, Andrea called Rusty and begged him to come home. He found her shaking involuntarily and chewing on her fingers. The next day, she was hospitalized after she tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of pills. She was transferred to the Methodist Hospital psychiatric unit and diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. The medical staff described Andrea as evasive in discussing her problems. However, on June 24 she was prescribed an antidepressant and released.
Spiraling Downward: Once home, Andrea did not take the medication and as a result she began to self mutilate and refused to feed her children because she felt they were eating too much. She thought there were video cameras in the ceilings and said that the characters on television were talking to her and the children. She told Rusty about the hallucinations, yet neither of them informed Andrea's psychiatrist, Dr. Starbranch. On July 20, Andrea put a knife to her neck and begged her husband to let her die.
Warned About the Risks of Having More Babies : Andrea was again hospitalized and stayed in a catatonic state for 10 days. After being treated with an injection of different drugs that included Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug, her condition immediately improved. Rusty was optimistic about the drug therapy because Andrea appeared more like the person he first met. Dr. Starbranch warned the Yates that having another baby might bring on more episodes of psychotic behavior. Andrea was placed on out-patient care and prescribed Haldol.
New Hopes for the Future : Andrea's family urged Rusty to buy a home instead of returning Andrea to the cramped space of the bus. He purchased a nice home in a peaceful neighborhood. Once in her new home, Andrea's condition improved to the point that she returned to past activities like swimming, cooking and some socializing. She was also interacting well with her children. She expressed to Rusty that she had strong hopes for the future but still viewed her life on the bus as her failure.
The Tragic End: In March of 2000, Andrea, on Rusty's urging, became pregnant and stopped taking the Haldol. On November 30, 2000, Mary was born. Andrea was coping but on March 12, her father died and immediately her mental state digressed. She stopped talking, refused liquids, mutilated herself, and would not feed Mary. She also frantically read the Bible.
By the end of March Andrea returned to a different hospital. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammed Saeed, treated her briefly with Haldol but discontinued it, saying that she did not did not seem psychotic. Andrea was released only to return again in May. She was released in 10 days and in her last follow-up visit with Saeed, she was told to think positive thoughts and to see a psychologist.
Two days later, Rusty left for work and before his mother arrived to help, Andrea began to put into action the thoughts that had consumed her for two years.
Andrea filled the tub with water and beginning with Paul, she systematically drowned the three youngest boys, then placed them on her bed and covered them. Mary was left floating in the tub. The last child alive was the first born, seven-year-old Noah. He asked his mother what was wrong with Mary, then turned and ran away. Andrea caught up with him and as he screamed, she dragged him and forced him into the tub next to Mary's floating body. He fought desperately, coming up for air twice, but Andrea held him down until he was dead. Leaving Noah in the tub, she brought Mary to the bed and laid her in the arms of her brothers.
During Andrea's confession she explained her actions by saying that she wasn't a good mother and that the children were "not developing correctly" and she needed to be punished.
Her controversial trial lasted three weeks. The jury found Andrea guilty of capital murder, but rather then recommending the death penalty, they vorted for life in prison. At the age of 77, in the year 2041, Andrea will be eligible for parole.
source: http://crime.about.com/od/current/p/andreayates.htm
[Deanna LaJune Laney] Laney's husband: 'I can't understand.'
The Dallas Morning News(USA), Mar. 31, 2004
http://www.dentonrc.com
By Lee hancock
He tells jurors that his wife 'loved the boys'
TYLER – Keith Laney had only the slightest hint of anguish in his deep East Texas voice but the haunted look of a man living an endless nightmare.
Speaking publicly for the first time since two of his sons died and a third was maimed, he told a jury that he wonders every day why the devoted wife he still loves bashed their boys' heads in with stones last Mother's Day weekend.
"I can't understand," he testified in the second day of Deanna Laney's capital murder trial. "We didn't have any problems."
The 47-year-old air-compressor repairman was among four family members called by prosecutors to explain that they saw nothing to suggest Mrs. Laney was anything but a devout Christian, loving mother and happy wife before the May 10 attacks.
Mrs. Laney's attorneys hope to convince an eight-man, four-woman jury that she suffered from psychotic delusions so severe that she didn't know right from wrong and was therefore legally insane.
She is charged with capital murder in the deaths of 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke, as well as serious injury to a child for the maiming of Aaron, now almost 2.
If convicted, she faces life in prison; if acquitted by reason of insanity, she would go to a state mental hospital for evaluation and treatment.
Prosecutors spent the first 1 1⁄2 days of the trial reconstructing the attacks that came at the Laneys' rural Smith County home. Mrs. Laney called 911 just after midnight May 10 and told police with eerie calm that she had just killed her boys with rocks on orders from God.
Deputies who came to the family's brick home found a bloodbath. The older boys' bodies were in the yard, one in the gore-spattered rock garden where his head was bashed in, and the other nearby behind a glider swing.
Grisly details
An hourlong videotape of what police found was played for jurors Tuesday morning. It showed the jarring contrast between the carnage ringed with yellow police tape and a warm, immaculate home filled with family pictures and toys.
Beside the Laneys' front steps were signs with childish red letters: "thank God for Mothers" and "Mother's love grows here." Mr. Laney said his oldest sons made them at the church that was a focus of all their lives, Tyler's First Assembly of God.
Deputy Dallas County medical examiner Sheila Spotswood then spent several hours detailing the older boys' fatal injuries. Mrs. Laney, 39, wept and shook as prosecutors displayed grisly poster-size autopsy photos.
Mr. Laney stared blankly. A large man in a plaid shirt, roper boots and creased Wranglers, Mr. Laney remained stoic as he testified for nearly an hour about his boys, their close-knit, Christian life, and the night they were attacked.
Joshua was "quiet, loving, real loving," he said of his oldest. "A model son."
Luke was a "challenge," full of energy and "the comic in the family."
Aaron walked well enough to take on stairs. "He was busy," Mr. Laney said.
'Cared very deeply'
Mr. Laney said that he met Mrs. Laney at church and that he knew she was "filled with the Holy Spirit" in ways he was not. In 19 years of marriage, they lived by Scripture, with nightly Bible studies and daily prayer.
His air-compressor shop was near their home, and Mrs. Laney home-schooled the boys to ensure them the one-on-one attention he lacked as a schoolchild, he said.
"She loved the boys, yes," he said. "Just instances when they'd fall or have a wreck on their motorcycle, she was the first one there. She cared very deeply. One of 'em couldn't cry or whine but she'd be there."
Though they sometimes worked through difficult spells, he said, his wife never mentioned worries or troubles. She got up happy every day and stayed that way, he said. Even early, he said, "she'd make you mad, 'cause she'd most of the time smile at you."
He said they worked hard and were debt-free, with a paid-for house, a hobby farm with a cabin and a satisfying life. Their sons were their focus, but they socialized often with both of their parents. His wife told him the night their children died that she had called that evening to invite his parents to a steak cook-out on Mother's Day.
That night, he watched the evening news and then crawled into bed beside his wife, he said. Waking to crying, he got up to check on Aaron because the boy often fussed at night.
By dim hall lights, he saw his wife on the baby's floor, where police later found a large bloodstain.
"Dee's back was to me in the door. I didn't walk all the way in the room. She turned to me. We kind of made eye contact," he said. "I saw she was taking care of him, so I went back to bed."
He said she told him "everything's OK. ... I got it."
Mrs. Laney told psychiatrists that Aaron cried out when she hit him with a 4 1⁄2-pound rock. She said she couldn't bring herself to keep hitting him, so she put him back in his crib bleeding from a head wound and went for the older boys.
Mr. Laney said he later awoke to noise and stumbled into the hall to see a sheriff's deputy pointing a pistol at his head. "I made the statement that they were in the wrong house," he said. "I didn't understand why they were in my house."
He looked at his wife only once during his testimony, grinning as he struggled to remember the year they married.
But he did not glance at her when asked if he still loved her. "Yes," he said simply.
LANEY TRIAL DEVELOPMENTS
Tuesday's developments in the capital murder trial of Deanna "Dee" Laney in the deaths of sons Joshua, 8, and Luke, 6, and an attack on son Aaron, 14 months:
The evidence
Laney house videotape: An hour of crime-scene video, it showed a contrast between an orderly home and carnage outside. Segments focused on bloody bodies of the older boys in the yard, as well as a walk-through of the house. It paused on photos of the boys, children's artwork and bloody handprints in the children's rooms.
Autopsy photos: Over defense objections, prosecutors showed 10 poster-size photos of the boys' fatal injuries.
Autopsy findings: Joshua's head and neck were hit at least eight times with blows so hard that his skull was penetrated. He suffered lung and heart injuries that may have come from being pinned by his mother's knee as he struggled to escape her. Luke suffered fractures on both sides and at the base of his skull.
Key witnesses:
Keith Laney, Ms. Laney's husband, who answered questions publicly for the first time since the slayings.
Gary Bell, Ms. Laney's brother-in-law and pastor at Tyler's First Assembly of God church. He described Ms. Laney as a loving mother and devout Christian who sang in the choir and was in church "every time the doors opened." He said she gave a testimonial in the year before the attacks that God had called her to get her house in order, but he said that was nothing unusual for a faith that teaches followers to "be ready" for Jesus' return.
Virginia Laney, Ms. Laney's mother-in-law. The most emotional of the family witnesses, she testified briefly about her daughter-in-law calling about 6 p.m. on the night of the slayings and inviting her over for a Mother's Day cookout.
Ritchie Laney, Ms. Laney's brother-in-law, who lived across the street with his family and works at Keith's air-compressor repair business. He described his nephews, Joshua as a mechanical whiz, "Lukey" as a class clown, and Aaron as a sturdy "bam-bam."
Dr. Park Dietz, a prominent California forensic psychiatrist who evaluated Ms. Laney for the state and reported that he believed she was legally insane at the time of the attacks. He told jurors he based that on a nine-hour interview with her, along with criminal reports, medical records, her writings and videotaped interviews of her after her arrest. Dr. Dietz has worked on cases ranging from Andrea Yates to Jeffrey Dahmer to Theodore Kaczynski.
In the courtroom
District Attorney Matt Bingham shook the second-floor courtroom by dropping a 16.5-pound sandstone rock to demonstrate the force it could have inflicted on Joshua. The thud could be heard on the first floor of the courthouse.
Ms. Laney sobbed and shook as prosecutors displayed graphic photos of her sons and detailed their injuries. Ms. Laney's mother and sister left the courtroom for the first time during autopsy testimony. Her father hung his head and stared at a wallet photo of his grandchildren, then left in tears at the end of morning testimony. Ms. Laney's husband, Keith, watched grimly. His father sat with his eyes tightly closed, and his mother alternated between closing her eyes and wiping back tears.
Most jurors displayed little emotion for a second day. One, a 44-year-old woman with a child under 10, repeatedly averted her eyes at videotape of the boys' bodies in the yard. Several male jurors looked stricken during autopsy testimony.
Jury demographics
Eight men, four women, one female alternate. Four are black, one is Middle Eastern, and eight are white. Most are in their 40s, but their ages range from mid-30s to 73. One is a minister's wife; several have worked at hospitals or mental institutions. Two have children under 10. One has loved ones who have attended Pentecostal churches. Several had said they or loved ones have been treated for mental problems or have taken drugs for depression or mental illness.
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