Pennsylvania mom, daughter plead guilty in murders of 5 family members
By Louis Casiano | Fox News
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A Philadelphia-area mother and daughter have pleaded guilty to killing five family members -- including three children -- over two days in their apartment last year, authorities said Monday.
Shana Selena Decree, 47, and her 21-year-old daughter Dominique Kiaran Decree will serve five consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty but mentally ill to five counts of first-degree murder and one count of criminal conspiracy, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.
Prosecutors said between Feb. 23 and Feb. 25, 2019, the pair killed Shana Decree’s children, Naa’Irah Smith, 25, and Damon Decree Jr., 13, both of Morrisville, her sister, Jamilla Campbell, 42, of Trenton, N.J., and Campbell’s 9-year-old twin daughters Imani and Erika Allen.
"Today, we mourn with the families of Erica and Imani Allen, Damon Decree, Naa'irah Smith, and Jamilla Campbell, who were all murdered by mother and daughter Shana and Dominique Decree," Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said. "Were it not for their severe mental illness, both would face the death penalty. As it stands, they both will spend the rest of their lives in prison cells separated from the rest of us, as punishment."
The deceased bodies were found Feb. 25 in an apartment bedroom in Morrisville. The twin girls, Decree and Smith were killed by homicidal asphyxia and Campbell died as a result of homicidal ligature strangulation, according to an autopsy.
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Shana Decree told investigators all five victims wanted to die, prosecutors said. Several health professionals said both suspects were guilty but experiencing mental illness at the time of the murders.
"By murdering, Erica, Imani, Damon, Naa'irah, and Jamilla, they’ve decimated entire generations of their own family," Weintraub said.
