FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – An 8-year-old boy's account of his father stabbing him and his mother and brother before killing himself was released Thursday in his mother's trial.
Local 10 obtained a transcript of a Broward Sheriff's Office interview with the surviving child from his hospital bed at Broward Health Medical Center in the early morning hours after the incident.
His mother, Deanna De Jesus, 38, is charged with aggravated manslaughter and child neglect in connection with the Feb. 9 incident at the Highland Woods RV Park.
BSO said De Jesus did nothing during the Feb. 9 standoff to stop her husband -- who investigators said had already gunned down Ovila Plante, 76, at his RV -- when he stabbed Jeshia, their 9-year-old son and Samson, their 8-year-old son who was 7 at the time. Investigators said Deanna De Jesus only protested when her husband stabbed her.
Prosecutors said the accusations are supported by her son Samson's account of the stabbing spree.
In the interview, the boy told Detective Adam Rubin that his mother sat as his father stabbed him and his brother.
"Did your mom try to stop your dad?" Rubin asked.
"No, she didn't do nothing. She had to sit down," the boy said.
The child told Rubin that he tried to fight his father to make him stop.
"I had the knife and said, 'No more.' He was looking for it. I had the knife and I went to throw it away out the window. I had the knife after he dropped it....then he grabbed it again, he went into bathroom and stabbed me like, three times again. Then he fell on the floor," the boy said.
The state contends if Deanna De Jesus had done more to protect her son, he might still be alive. BSO said that for several hours after she realized Samson De Jesus was still alive, Deanna De Jesus failed to call for help, although SWAT team members were surrounding the RV.
On Thursday morning, jurors heard an audio recording of De Jesus speaking to a detective in the hospital after the incident.
In the recording, Deanna De Jesus explained to the detective why she couldn't help her children.
"Because I think he hurt me first. I was down on the floor and I couldn't move. I couldn't to help my kids," said Deanna De Jesus. "He was like, 'Mommy, mommy,' my 7-year-old, you know. He's autistic. I just heard him, like suffer for a little bit, he can't talk, and, he might have just died. I don't know, I haven't found out yet."
Crime scene photos showed blood throughout the RV.
"He was hallucinating. I know my husband. He never was like this before," said De Jesus in the recording.
Instead of going to school that morning, Samson told Rubin that his father told them the family was going to go to Miami so he could spend time with them and because he needed to get "medicine or something." Investigators said William De Jesus brought his family to South Florida from their home in Port Orange to buy drugs that day.
Five hours after the incident began, the SWAT team went into the RV and found that William De Jesus and the couple's nine-year-old son were dead, and Deanna De Jesus and the seven-year-old son were critically wounded, BSO said.
The defense team told Local 10's Christina Vasquez that De Jesus has not yet decided whether she will take the stand to defend herself when the trial resumes on Monday. Her decision could come as early as Friday, when she is scheduled to discuss the decision with her defense team.
Defense attorneys argue that Deanna De Jesus was nothing more than a victim in the ordeal, adding that she was defenseless against her husband, who was armed, and physically incapable of helping her children after William De Jesus turned the knife on her.