A Pennsylvania man is facing the possibility of the death penalty, after a jury convicted him of murdering his two girlfriends and one of their unborn children.
Davone Anderson, 27, gunned down gal pals Sydney Parmelee and Kaylee Lyons, both 23, in the summer of 2020, after he became convinced Parmelee was cheating on him and that Lyons, who was several weeks pregnant, would turn him in, WHTM reported.
A Cumberland County jury found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, first-degree murder of an unborn child and endangering the welfare of a child, since his 13-month-old child was present during both slayings, PennLive.com reported.
Jurors will begin deliberating whether he should face capital punishment on Tuesday.
“We were very pleased that the jury returned guilty verdicts today,” Cumberland County District Attorney Sean McCormack told the station in an email. “It has been almost two years since these two young mothers were murdered, leaving three very young children motherless.”
Lyons’ father, meanwhile, testified in court that his daughter’s slaying had left him gutted.
“There’s a void,” Temonia Thomas said. “There’s a void. There’s a void. There’s only a few people who can say they understand how I feel.”
Lyons’ surviving son with Anderson is 2 years old. The boy will eventually learn about what happened to his mother, Thomas said.
“Eventually, he’s going to ask the questions, ‘Who is Mom? Who is Dad?’” Thomas continued.
Anderson’s attorneys, meanwhile, pointed to his abusive childhood and being repeatedly molested as a boy as lifelong circumstances that contributed to the slayings, PennLive.com reported.
