We have reported on torture killer daddy JOHN DEBLASE since this case first broke four years ago. What is not reported here is that this CUSTODIAL FATHER viciously kept these children he considered a "personal liability" away from their mother. Daddy, like many abusive fathers, denied all contact while the authorities did nothing. According to the mother, she had not seen the kids in at least a year. See previous posts here.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/trial-dad-accused-poisoning-kids-antifreeze-article-1.1971912
Trial to begin for Alabama father accused of poisoning children with antifreeze
John DeBlase has been behind bars while awaiting trial in the murder of his two children, Natalie, 5, and Chase, 3, since December 2010. The 30-year-old is accused of torturing the children with their stepmother for months before killing them separately and hiding their bodies in Alabama and Mississippi.
BY Nina Golgowski /
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS /
Sunday, October 12, 2014, 7:36 PM
An Alabama father accused of torturing and poisoning his two children with antifreeze before dumping their bodies in trash bags four years ago is finally going to trial.
The capital murder trial for John DeBlase, 30, is set to begin in Mobile Tuesday in the sickening deaths of his two children, Natalie, 5, and Chase, 3, in 2010.
DeBlase and his common-law wife, Heather Leavell-Keaton, have both pleaded not guilty after the children's skeletal remains were recovered in Alabama and Mississippi, one month after they were reported missing, though they had not been seen for months, Mobile's Press-Register reported.
Chase, who was described as only wearing diapers when he was found in woods north of Vancleave, Miss., on Dec. 8, 2010, is believed to have died on June 20 after enduring months of abuse and poisoned meals that left him violently ill.
His older sister, whose body was found two days later in woods near Citronelle, Ala., is believed to have died earlier on March 4 after facing similar, if not worse, abuse.
The little girl had been burned with cigarettes and hot candle wax, had her hair pulled and was beaten with a fly swatter by Leavell-Keaton, who was her stepmother, before she was heartlessly locked in a suitcase on the day she died, Mobile police Detective Angela Prine testified in September 2011.
Leavell-Keaton — whose trial is scheduled to begin on March 25 — has been accused of being jealous of the little girl and of torturing both children before teaming up with DeBlase to kill them for a life free of responsibilities.
Authorities have said that Chase survived a bit longer than his sister when the couple considered keeping him alive despite previous poisonings.
He was ultimately considered a "liability," however, when he was seen crying and asking for his sister in public after her death, according to the detective's testimony.
Among the horrific allegations of abuse, Prine said Leavell-Keaton confessed to killing the children to a fellow inmate and that DeBlase first poisoned their dog with antifreeze "to see how long it would take to kill a living thing," the Press Register reported.
Authorities search woods near Citronelle, Ala. where the body of 5-year-old Natalie DeBlase was found in December 2010. Her recovery came two days after her brother's in Mississippi.
Authorities said they bought gallons of antifreeze at a Walmart to prepare.
In addition to three counts of capital murder with DeBlase, Leavell-Keaton also faces two counts of aggravated child abuse.