Morrisville Killings: DA Undecided On Death Penalty (ICYMI)

MORRISVILLE, PA — Prosecutors in Bucks County have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty in the case of a mother and daughter accused of killing five of their family members, including three children, last year.

Shana Decree, 46, and Dominique Decree, 20, of Morrisville, appeared before Judge Wallace Bateman, Jr. on Tuesday. At the hearing, at which the two were formally arraigned on murder charges, Bateman granted the Bucks County District Attorney's Office another month to decide on whether to pursue the death penalty.

Deputy District Attorney Chris Rees requested the extension, which Bateman set for March 20.

On Feb. 25, 2019, police found the bodies of five people in a unit of the Robert Morris Apartments in Morrisville. They were identified as Shana Decree's children, Naa'Irah Smith, 25, and Damon Decree Jr., 13, as well as her sister Jamilla Campbell, 42, of Trenton, N.J., and Campbell's 9-year-old twin daughters, Imani and Erika Allen.

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According to a police affidavit, Shana and Dominique Decree were found disoriented in a bed and would later tell investigators that the killings were part of a murder-suicide pact.

The Bucks County Coroner would rule that four of the victims died of asphyxiation and the fifth died from strangulation.

The two originally had been charged with five counts of homicide in the case. But, on Tuesday, those charges were first-degree murder, with an additional charge of conspiracy to commit murder added for both.

The trial date in the case was set for June 8.