Trial Continues For Woman Charged In Deadly Deerfield Attack
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Day two in the trial of a woman accused of not protecting her children during her husband's murderous rampage last February at a Deerfield Beach RV park saw the defendant break down into loud sobs.
Deanna De Jesus is charged with Aggravated Manslaughter and Child Abuse in connection with the bloody standoff between her husband William De Jesus and Broward Sheriff's deputies.
According to investigators, the DeJesus family drove from their home in Port Orange to the Highland Woods RV Park in Deerfield Beach. The family went to an RV that belonged to Ovila Plante, 76, and his girlfriend, Pierrete Beauchemin.
According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, William DeJesus, 41, who was an Oxycodone addict and had cocaine in his system, shot Plante to death in front of his RV and then took Beauchemin hostage. After she realized DeJesus was going to kill his family and then kill her, Beauchemin managed to escape after a two hour hostage standoff.
Thursday morning in Broward Court, the jury heard a taped interview Deanna De Jesus gave to a BSO detective just hours after the rampage ended. On the tape De Jesus described her husband as being in a 'withdrawl' state because he was trying to free himself of a prescription pain pill addiction as he drove around aimlessly and found his way accidentally into the RV Park.
Deanna De Jesus said after he forced her and their two children into the RV his behavior became even more erratic.
"He was going crazy. I didn't want anything to happen, he had a gun," Deanna De Jesus told investigator during the taping. "He would hurt me if I didn't cooperate too. I was scared for my kids. My son was crying he was scared for me. He didn't want to die, he's only seven. I take Selexa, for depression, bi polar, mild schizophrenia. And my autistic son didn't have his medicine. He was laughing, hyper, he's beautiful, he's an angel."
According to BSO, DeJesus stabbed his autistic son Jeshiah, 9, and his other son Samson, 7, multiple times in the attack that lasted several minutes. Jeshiah died of his injuries while Samson and Deanna were both critically injured. William was found dead in his RV by a police SWAT team.
The Broward County Medical Examiner said that the boys, Jeshiah and William both had cocaine in their systems when they died.
Deanna told a witness that she knew her husband sometimes crushed drugs and gave it to their sons, according to the BSO. Investigators believe DeJesus drove to South Florida to obtain drugs.
Prosecutors say during the standoff with SWAT, Deanna De Jesus did nothing even though she had plenty of opportunities to flee and protect her two children. Her defense has been that she was afraid of her husband and also suffered a collapsed lung from being stabbed herself during the incident in the RV.
After the lunch break on Thursday, prosecutors showed the jury pictures of crime including those of Jeshian. When De Jesus began sobbing hysterically, the judge sent the jury out of the courtroom.
