S.C. mom pleads guilty to murder in toddler sons' deaths - USA Today
ORANGEBURG, S.C. -- A woman who admitted killing her two sons before driving her car into a lake in 2010 pleaded guilty to two counts of murder Friday.
By Mary Ann Chastain, AP
Shaquan Duley, 29, confessed to suffocating her two toddler sons after a fight with her own mother, investigators say.
By Mary Ann Chastain, AP
Shaquan Duley, 29, confessed to suffocating her two toddler sons after a fight with her own mother, investigators say.
Shaquan Duley appeared at the Orangeburg County Courthouse, where she admitted to killing 18-month-old Ja'Van Duley and 2-year-old Devean Duley. After asking her several questions, the judge accepted her plea.
Afterward, Duley asked for forgiveness from her family, the city, and told the judge that she loved her children.
Duley's mother, Helen, offered an emotional testimony in which she told the judge that she still loved her daugther, in spite of what happened, and wanted the judge to "have mercy on her."
Her, father, Arthur, and her sister, Adrian, also spoke in her defense.
In asking for the minimum sentence of 30 years, her attorney, Carl Grant, reminded the judge that Duley has no prior criminal record and was emotionally disturbed at the time of the killings. Grant showed pictures to the judge of cuts she made to her wrists before the children died.
Back in August of 2010, Shaquan Duley suffocated her two sons at a local motel. Sheriff's investigators said she'd had a fight with her mother hours earlier over the rearing of the two children.
Investigators said she strapped the boys' bodies into their car seats, drove 10 miles to a boat ramp, and watched as the car rolled down a boat ramp into the water. Duley flagged down a passing motorist to call the Highway Patrol.
Divers pulled the boys' bodies from the North Edisto River on August 16, 2010. Duley initially told police she fell asleep at the wheel before the car went into the river about 40 miles south of Columbia, but authorities questioned her story after finding no skid marks or signs of a crash.
Over the last 19 months, Duley's lawyer had asked the solicitor's office to reduce the charges against her; prosecutors declined.
The judge said he would sentence Duley during the week of March 26.
The tragic scene of a car found submerged with children's bodies inside was eerily reminiscent of the 1994 case of another South Carolina mother, Susan Smith, who is now serving life in prison for killing her young sons by rolling her car into a lake in the northwest part of the state.
Smith left her 3-year-old and 14-month-old sons strapped in their car seats as she rolled her car into a lake in Union County. Smith, who is white, initially claimed a black man carjacked her and drove off with the children.
Contributing: WLTX-TV, Columbia, S.C., The Associated Press
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Lexie Cortese is in Rome to forget. The last thing she expects is to meet a sexy Interpol agent who suspects her of being part of a terrorist plot involving a stolen diamond. Suddenly thrust into a world of murders, muggings, and kidnappings, Lexie doesn't know what to think--or who to believe.
Dominic Brioni's assignment is simple. Befriend the American and bring her to justice. Only Lexie seems like the most unlikely terrorist Dominic has ever met. Sweet, determined, and direct, she faces life with courage and fire, a fire that sparks his protective instincts and a longing for something more--something he allowed himself to hope for only once before.
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