DeBlase Leavell-Keaton

John DeBlase and Heather Leavell-Keaton appear in court court for their role in the torture and poisoning of 2 children. (file photo)

They had a routine.



John DeBlase measured out portions of anti-freeze, and his common law wife Heather Leavell-Keaton cooked it into food for his two young children, Leavell-Keaton's former jail-mate Roseanna Taylor testified on Thursday.



"She didn't have any remorse," said Taylor, who took Leavell-Keaton under her wing at Mobile County Metro Jail. "She didn't get sad. It's like she didn't care, she was not a human. She talked to me like it was a normal conversation."



Jailhouse gossip between inmates took center stage in the fifth day of Leavell-Keaton's capital murder trial in Mobile County Circuit Court.



Testimony offered by those who knew Leavell-Keaton during her prison stay provided the most stunning revelations yet about the murders of DeBlase's two children, Chase, 3, and Natalie, 4.



Prosecutors alleged that Leavell-Keaton, of Louisville, Ky., tortured and killed Natalie and Chase with DeBlase, in their residence at Peach Place Apartments in Mobile. DeBlase was convicted of capital murder in their deaths in a separate trial in November 2014.



Leavell-Keaton, a former Spring Hill College student, poisoned Natalie with anti-freeze after Natalie had given her "the cold shoulder," according to prosecutors. She died and her body was dumped March 4, 2010 in the woods near Citronelle.



Prosecutors said that Leavell-Keaton, who was pregnant with DeBlaze's baby daughter at the time, also dosed Chase with the anti-freeze. He died on June 20, 2010 - Father's Day - and his body was dumped in the woods north of Vancleave, Miss.

Jail stories



Taylor told the jury she worked as Leavell-Keaton's "buddy watch" at the Mobile County Metro Jail when she was transferred there in November 2010.



She said she helped Leavell-Keaton, who was on suicide watch, get around the jail and they became acquaintances.



Taylor testified that Leavell-Keaton told her that she fed the children anti-freeze that DeBlase would measure before he went to massage therapy classes at Blue Cliff Career College.



She had one set of pots and pans their own food, and another set for the children's food, Taylor said. One of the dishes was spaghetti that was laced with anti-freeze.



"At first they would eat it because I guess they wouldn't know the difference," Taylor said. "As time progressed, they wouldn't eat it and they knew something was wrong with it."



But if the two children refused to eat it, they were punished, Taylor recalled Leavell-Keaton telling her.



The couple experimented with the chemical by dosing John's aunt's dog, a Dachshund, to "see how long it would take to kill it," Taylor said.

'Natalie was too much of a princess for her'



Taylor alleged that Leavell-Keaton told her that Natalie was poisoned because she "despised Natalie."



"Natalie was too much of a princess for her and girls weren't supposed to be like that," Taylor said.



Natalie got sick, began to defecate and urinate all over herself, and the couple put her in the bathroom on an air mattress, Taylor said.



The day she died, Natalie cried all day, Taylor said. DeBlase came home from school, took her out of the bathroom, and put her into the bedroom. Natalie was "screaming and screaming and screaming" and she went silent, Taylor said.



The couple poisoned Chase when he became a "liability" by asking about his sister in public, Taylor said. He began urinating on himself when he was fed the poison.



Leavell-Keaton taped his back to a broomstick, put him on top of a tarp in the corner of the living room, and they taped his mouth shut so that he couldn't cry, Taylor said.



Before they dumped his body, they stopped at a Gamestop in Tillman's Corner and DeBlase bought the "Iron Man" video game.



"I'll never forget that," Taylor said. "They didn't have any responsibilities. John even asked if they could stop and get this game because they didn't have any more responsibilities."



Taylor testified that Leavell-Keaton also told her about the number of ways Leavell-Keaton and DeBlase would abuse their children.



The couple burned the children cigarettes, lighters and candlewax, and Leavell-Keaton would give them "love hugs," by wrapping her legs and arms around them and squeezing, Taylor said.



Cross-examination



Taylor and Keaton's defense attorney, James Vollmer, exchanged a testy back-and-forth during cross examination.



Vollmer tried to play up to the jury Taylor's convictions for writing bad checks.



But Taylor was quick to note that the crimes that led her to jail stint occurred five years ago.



Since then, Taylor testified that she kicked a prescription pill habit, got married, had a baby, and got a job working for the Archdiocese of Mobile.



"I'm living a normal productive life," Taylor said. "That stuff made me who I am today. Isn't that what it's supposed to do, sir?"



Vollmer also reiterated to the jury Leavell-Keaton's claims to Taylor that that pinned the deaths of the children at the feet of DeBlase.



"And you said John DeBlase wanted to kill the kids?" Vollmer said.



"So did she," Taylor replied.

'Sacrifice to the Gods'

At Mobile County Metro Jail, Donna Frazier Christian and Leavell-Keaton read the Bible together and Christian would assist her when she came out of the jail's "quiet room."

Christian, who was locked up on a charge of receiving stolen property, stated that Leavell-Keaton told her that John DeBlase paid more attention to Natalie than to her and that she felt "left out of the relationship."

Leavell-Keaton also told Christian, who has five children of her own, that "in other countries parents sacrifice their children to the Gods," Christian said.

Additionally, Leavell-Keaton presented drawings to her and other affectionate art, which Christian said was unsettling.

"I couldn't take it anymore because I was in a really uncomfortable situation," Christian said.

Christian was subsequently transferred to a different part of the prison, she testified.



Expert witness

Lester Roger Champion II testified that he met DeBlase, his two children and Leavell-Keaton through professional wrestling.



Champion, who brought a post-traumatic stress disorder service dog into the courtroom (an English Bulldog), described the couple's relationship as "toxic" and referred to Leavell-Keaton as "evil."

He described an incident where Leavell-Keaton gave meager portions of food to the two children and suggested that Leavell-Keaton beat Chase and Natalie with a belt.



Throughout his testimony, Champion got testy with Leavell-Keaton's defense attorneys, but he cried when shown a portrait of Chase and Natalie.



"They were like my godchildren," Champion said. "If there was anything I could have done for my daughter, I would have done for them."



Once his testimony concluded, Leavell-Keaton's defense attorneys asked a separate witness to identify Champion in his professional wrestling photo.

The photo depicted Champion, in full black and white face paint, standing above two women who were on all fours and chained up on leashes to the right and left of him.

This story was corrected at 9:48 p.m. May 15, 2015 to provide accurate information about Taylor's convictions.