An Oklahoma man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole on Wednesday for the murder of his uncle, his uncle’s 4-year-old granddaughter and a woman whose heart he cut out and cooked.
Court documents revealed that Lawrence Paul Anderson, 44,confessed to stabbing41-year-old Andrea Lynn Blankenship, his 67-year-old uncle Leon Pye and his uncle’s granddaughter Kaeos Yates to death “on or about” February 9, 2021, in Chickasha, Okla., reported NBC News.
He alsoadmitted to injuring his auntDelsie Pye, according to Fox News. Pyesuffered a broken tailbone and ribsand can only see out of one eye after the other was allegedly gouged out, perThe Oklahoman.
According toThe Oklahoman, Blankenship was the Pyes' neighbor. The publication reported that Anderson confessed to killing her after breaking through her back door, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI).
Anderson then stabbed Blankenship 40 times, removing her left eye, stomach and heart, a medical examiner wrote in an autopsy report, perThe Oklahoman.
Fox News reported that Anderson brought Blankenship’s heart to his aunt and uncle’s home. There, he “cooked the heart with potatoes to feed to his family to release the demons,” said an OSBI agent, perThe Oklahoman.
After trying to serve the heart to them, Anderson then assaulted his aunt and uncle and their 4-year-old grandchild, authorities said, per Fox News.
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“To think a family member of mine could do this heinous crime breaks my heart,” the statement continued. “Family means everything to me. As my nephew, I don’t love you but I don’t hate you … I can’t judge you. God will.”
PerThe Oklahoman, Delsie Pye told Oklahoma City television station KFOR in 2021 that Anderson went crazy when he came to her house, saying, “He thought I was dead. God was with me.”
Anderson pleaded guilty to three counts of murder in the first degree, one count of assault and battery with a deadly weapon and one count of maiming on Wednesday, reported NBC News.
His sentencing was part of a plea deal, as Hicks said he was no longer seeking the death penalty at the request of the victims' families, reported Fox News.
“A lot of that was tied to they don’t want a trial,” Hicks said at a news conference after the sentencing, perThe Oklahoman. “They don’t want to sit in a courtroom and listen to all the gory details of what happened to their loved ones.”
According toThe Oklahoman, evidence for the killings included a recording from a voicemail that Anderson left, which captured 4-year-old Kaeos Yates screaming as she was killed.
“On judgment day, I pray your heart is full of fear,” Tasha Yates said, according toThe Oklahoman, adding that Anderson snuffed out a light “in this dark world.”
source: people.com
