Dad murders mom, 5- and 6-year-old sons; dad had extensive history of domestic violence (Louisville, Kentucky)

Police are being pretty mealy-mouthed about it, but it's pretty clear that Dad JOHN DEVISE was the killer. Notice how a triple killer is still treated as a loving father. Puke. These guys may be on an act of being the big loving father, but if they're sociopathic abusers, they're socipathic abusers. In their obsession with slaughtering mom, the babies are just collateral damage, just the cost of doing business.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120716/NEWS01/307160079/Father-two-boys-killed-woman-had-been-convicted-domestic-violence?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Father of two boys killed with woman had been convicted of domestic violence

Mother, 2 boys died; man injured in PRP

9:23 PM, Jul 16, 2012

Sadé Goldsmith and her two young sons moved into her Pleasure Ridge Park home a couple of weeks ago, but her sister believes trouble followed her.

“She did the best she could to protect herself, protect her boys,” the sister, Omega Goldsmith, said Monday.

A panic alarm sounded in Sadé Goldsmith’s new home shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday, said Lt. Barry Wilkerson, commander of the Louisville Metro Police Homicide Unit. When police arrived, they found the back door had been broken into and four people inside, all shot, he said.

Dead were Sadé Goldsmith, 26, and her sons, 6-year-old John Devine Jr. and 5-year-old Jon’Tee Devine, according to the coroner’s office.

The boys’ father was injured and taken to University Hospital, Wilkerson said. Police did not release any further information about his condition or his injuries.

Homicide detectives are investigating, but no charges have been filed. Wilkerson said police still have interviews to conduct, including with the father, whom he declined to identify.

Police are also not naming whom they suspect is the shooter.

Omega Goldsmith identified the boys’ father as John Device. She said Devine and Sadé Goldsmith dated off and on for years.

Court and police records show that Devine has been convicted three times on domestic violence charges where Sadé Goldsmith was the victim.

The earliest record is from 2004, when police accused Devine of pushing and striking Goldsmith after they began arguing, according to an arrest report. Devine was sentenced to 100 days in jail, 90 of which were conditionally discharged.

In 2005, Devine was sentenced to 365 days in jail, with all but eight conditionally discharged. And in 2006, Devine was sentenced again to 365 days in jail, with 215 conditionally discharged.

Omega Goldsmith said she believed her sister had taken out protective orders against Devine, but Wilkerson said no “standing” domestic violence order had ever been taken out between Devine and Goldsmith.

Another woman took out a domestic violence order against Devine in 2011 that expired in September that year, according to court records. In a petition for that domestic violence order, the woman accused Devine of grabbing her by the neck and forcing her to have sex with him.

Devine took out a protective order against the same woman in 2011, accusing her of hitting him with a “starch can,” coming at him with a knife and pouring paint onto his car, according to court records.

The most dangerous time in a relationship in which domestic violence is an issue is when the victim separates from the perpetrator, who is seeking power and control over the victim, said Marcia Roth, executive director of the Mary Byron Project, an activist group against domestic violence.

Victims of domestic violence are sometimes reluctant to seek protective orders, and abusers are often angered by them, Roth said.

“It is not always incumbent on the victim to take out a protective order — a protective order can be very powerful, but she may have been scared to death,” she said.

Goldsmith was the sole owner of the home in the 6100 block of Maravian Drive, off Lower Hunters Trace, according to real estate documents from June.

Devine and Sadé Goldsmith had lived together over the course of their relationship, but Omega Goldsmith did not know how long they’d been living apart. A December 2004 arrest report listed both as residents of 817 McCawley Road.

Omega Goldsmith said she didn’t know of any incidents where Devine was violent toward the two boys. To the contrary, she said Devine loved them — and the sentiment was mutual.

“When it was time to visit Daddy,” she said, “it was something special to them.”