Natalie and Chase DeBlase
Heather Leavell-Keaton
Bail denied for stepmother accused of torturing and killing DeBlase children
MOBILE, Alabama -- A judge this morning denied bail for the stepmother of Natalie and Chase DeBlase, who is accused of torturing and killing the 4-year-old and 3-year-old siblings.
Heather Leavell-Keaton was charged late Friday with 2 counts of capital murder. She was already in jail facing two counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of abuse of a corpse.
Her common-law husband, John DeBlase, faces 2 counts of felony murder and 2 counts of abuse of a corpse in connection with his children's deaths. The children were reported missing, and possibly dead, on Nov. 18. They hadn’t been seen in months.
Investigators discovered Chase’s remains in a wooded area near Vancleave in coastal Mississippi on Dec. 8, and Natalie’s body was found near Citronelle in north Mobile County 3 days later.
District Judge George Hardesty denied bail during a brief hearing. Capital murder is punishable by life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Prosecutors said they decided to bring capital murder charges against Leavell-Keaton after receiving new information on Friday. But prosecutors declined to give any details about that information.
Earlier on Friday, Mobile police testified that the DeBlase and Leavell-Keaton have blamed each other for the killings. DeBlase claims the children died after suffering abuse at the hands of their stepmother, while Leavell-Keaton says the children were poisoned by their father, according to testimony.
DeBlase is being held in jail on $506,000 bail.
http://blog.al.com/live/2011/01/judg..._stepmoth.html
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