"Monster" dad pleads guilty to murder of two sons; avoid death sentence (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

Dad CLAYTON LEE MURPHY JR. has pleaded guilty to 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his young sons, ages 8 and 2. Murphy was going through a divorce with his "estranged" wife, and wanted to "get back" at her. So while this f---ing piece of shit had visitation with the kids, he called the mother on the phone so he could tell her what he intended to. And also so she could hear her 8-year-old son screaming for his life. Doesn't get much sicker than that.

Given that this POS had pulled a knife on the older boy four years before, why the hell did this father have anything other than supervised visitation with these children? Or better yet, NO visitation?

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/95481624.html?index=14&c=y

Man pleads guilty to killing young sons, avoids death sentence
By JOE GYAN JR.
Advocate staff writer
Published: Jun 3, 2010

A Baton Rouge man described by his ex-wife as a “monster” avoided a potential death sentence by admitting his guilt Wednesday in the 2008 stabbing deaths of their two young sons at his Bluebonnet Towers apartment.

During Wednesday’s emotionally charged hearing, Clayton Lee Murphy Jr., 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in exchange for two life sentences.

State District Judge Don Johnson ordered the life terms to run consecutively. They will be served at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

Murphy told East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s detectives shortly after the killings that he stabbed 8-year-old Juwan Murphy and 2-year-old Tayshaun Murphy on Oct. 5, 2008, to get back at his estranged wife, Renata M. Murphy.

Clayton Murphy — shackled and dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit — turned to members of his family, including his father, Clayton Murphy Sr., and Renata Murphy’s family and apologized before he was sentenced.

“To both families, I’m sorry. I know I hurt both sides,” he said without emotion.

Murphy told Johnson that he and Renata Murphy were going through a divorce in the fall of 2008. They were married on May 5, 1999.

Renata Murphy, who lives in Texas, was not in court.

After prosecutor Dana Cummings told the judge that Renata Murphy’s family wants to have no contact with Clayton Murphy, a victim assistance coordinator with the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office read a statement from Renata Murphy and her family.

“Renata asked that I tell the court that her absence is not in sympathy for herself, but rather in agony, horror and disgust of the monster, Clayton Murphy,” Sonya Quigley said.

“Clayton Murphy made sure Renata knew what he was doing. He even called her on the phone so she could hear her first-born child screaming for his life. A scream that wakes her every single night — a jolting scream in her dreams that she cannot describe. She crumbles to tears at the thought of the sound,” Quigley read.

Renata Murphy wants to recall only “the sounds of their laughter,” Quigley said.

District Attorney Hillar Moore III stressed that Clayton Murphy deserves the death penalty, but said Renata Murphy did not think she could endure testifying at trial.

“She can’t get the phone call out of her head,” Moore said. “She wants to get this behind her.”

Quigley also read a letter that Nellie “Tee” Bell, Juwan and Tayshaun’s great-aunt, had written to Clayton Murphy.

“I remember the last time I talked to Jay,” Bell wrote, referring to Juwan. “I told him to be good for you and to take care of you. He said — ‘I will, Tee’ — and to think this is how you took care of them.

“To think of the pain they had to endure and knowing that it was daddy hurting them is hard to bear,” Bell wrote.

Clayton Murphy’s attorneys, Margaret Lagattuta and Greg Rome, told Johnson the decision to plead guilty was Murphy’s.

“It’s my decision, sir,” Murphy confirmed to the judge.

Lagattuta said Murphy had no prior arrests.

Murphy, however, once before was accused of threatening to harm his son Juwan. In 2004, when Juwan was 3, Murphy allegedly held a knife to the boy’s throat. Renata Murphy called the Baker Police Department and Clayton Murphy was taken to LSU Early K. Long Medical Center for a mental evaluation after that incident.