The capital murder trial of John DeBlase entered its third week in Mobile with the defense preparing to present its version of events surrounding the deaths of his two young children, Natalie and Chase, in 2010.
DeBlase is accused of killing the children and dumping their bodies in a wooded area. Over the trial’s first two weeks, prosecutors called dozens of witnesses whose testimony implicated both DeBlase and his common-law wife, Heather Leavell-Keaton, in the deaths. That testimony has fed into the defense’s overall strategy, which has centered on pointing blame toward Keaton rather than DeBlase.
Defense attorneys Glenn Davidson and Art Powell were expected to call witnesses aiming to portray the 31-year-old DeBlase as someone manipulated and controlled by Keaton, even though attorneys are unlikely to fully deflect blame from their client. Keaton faces her own capital murder charges, along with two additional counts related to alleged torture of the children before their deaths.
According to prosecutors, Natalie was bound with duct tape, gagged and placed in a suitcase for roughly 12 hours in early March 2010, and died by the end of that day. Months later, on Father’s Day in June 2010, prosecutors said Chase was gagged and duct-taped to a broom handle and left leaning in a corner overnight while the couple slept, and died by the following morning.
DeBlase, who has spent much of the trial with his face in his hands between his attorneys, has claimed in jailhouse letters that Keaton killed the children and used his unborn child as leverage to force him to help cover up the deaths. In those same letters, he has said he choked each child to death after finding them restrained, describing it as an act of mercy to end their suffering.
Circuit Judge Rick Stout has presided over the trial, which has proceeded with few delays before a 16-person jury, including four alternates, that has been noted for its attentiveness throughout the proceedings.
As the defense’s case got underway, expected witnesses included DeBlase’s parents, who were likely to speak to jurors about his upbringing and character as attorneys worked to build a case that could spare him a death sentence if he is convicted.
The trial, one of the most closely watched capital murder cases in Mobile County in recent years, is expected to continue in the days ahead as both sides make their final arguments before the case goes to the jury.