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By AP 
13h ago
Doylestown, Pennsylvania – A mother and her adult daughter were sentenced to life in prison Monday for the murder of five close relatives, including three children, outside of Philadelphia last year.
Shana Decree, 47, and Dominique Decree, 21, were sentenced in Bucks County Court after pleading guilty but mentally ill to five counts of first-degree murder.
Presiding Judge Wallace Bateman told the two they had caused “unimaginable” damage, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“This is horrible and tragic, because I think you two have expressed remorse,” Bateman said Monday while sentencing the defendants. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t bring them back. You can’t just say ‘I’m sorry’ and expect people to move on with their lives. “
Both women offered tearful apologies to the court and other family members in the courtroom.
“The hardest thing for me is deciding who to apologize to first,” said Shana Decree. “To my family, I am sorry that I took these beautiful souls in such a horrible way.”
Dominique Decree sobbed when she said her actions will haunt her for the rest of her life.
“I am very sorry for everything that happened, and I really don’t understand why it happened,” he said.
A child and youth services social worker who went to the Morrisville apartment in February 2019 found the bodies of Shana Decree’s children, Naa’Irah Smith, 25, and Damon Decree Jr., 13, both of Morrisville. ; Shana Decree’s sister, Jamilla Campbell, 42, of Trenton, NJ; and Campbell’s 9-year-old twin daughters, Imani and Erika Allen. Campbell had been strangled and the others had been suffocated, the coroner’s office said.
Police said the defendants were found “disoriented” inside the apartment, where furniture had been overturned, drywall was broken and glass was all around. Authorities said they later gave conflicting stories of what had happened, but said everyone in the unit “wanted to die.”
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Rees said Monday that the killings occurred over the course of three days. The court-appointed psychologists and psychiatrists concluded that both defendants had a serious mental illness, including schizoid personality disorder, major depressive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Both had sought mental health treatment and Dominique’s attorney, John Fioravanti Jr., said his client started as early as age 5.
Shana Decree’s attorney, Christa Dunleavy, said her client was isolated and delusional at the time of the killings, believing that “the world was ending and there were demons in her house, and she had to obey them.”
“Her family tried to help her,” Dunleavy said, “but the delusions were too strong.”
Attorneys for both defendants said their clients had expressed horror and remorse after the killings.
District Attorney Matt Weintraub said in a statement that were it not for their “serious mental illness,” both defendants would face the death penalty, but would “spend the rest of their lives in prison cells separate from the rest. of us”.
“By murdering Erica, Imani, Damon, Naa’irah and Jamilla, they have decimated entire generations of their own family,” Weintraub said. “It tests my faith in humanity and in God. But I have to believe in both. The alternative is much worse.”
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