NEARBY: Death Penalty Considered For Mom, Daughter Accused Of Killing Five

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office will decide on whether the two women accused of killing five family members last winter in Morrisville Borough should face the death penalty.

Shana Selena Decree, 46, and her daughter Dominique Klaran Decree, 20, both of Morrisville Borough, were at the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown before county Judge Wallace Bateman for their formal arraignment Tuesday morning on charges for the homicides of Naa’Irah Smith, 25, of Morrisville; Damon Decree Jr., 13, of Morrisville; 9 year old sisters Erika and Imani Allen, of Trenton; and Jamilla Campbell, 42, of Trenton, inside a ground-floor apartment at the Robert Morris Apartments on West Bridge Street on Monday, February 25, 2019.

The mother and daughter pleaded not guilty for the deaths of their five family members.

A trial will be scheduled for mid year.

The prosecution and the defense both signed off on an extension until March 20 relating to filing mitigating factors that could lead to the two facing the death penalty. The judge allowed the extension to happen.

Prosecutors said they will lay out a motive for the killings at trial, but they did not want to release too many details as of Wednesday.

“This is the most severe case that I’m aware of in Bucks County with regard to total loss of life,” Deputy District Attorney Christopher Rees told reporters. “That’s compounded by the fact three of the individuals who were murdered were children.”

Rees said the district attorney’s office is focused on getting justice for the victims.

The case received national attention when it broke last year.

Authorities discovered the murders when a Bucks County Children and Youth caseworker was checking on the apartment. When no one answered, a maintenance worker for the apartment complex unlocked the door to the apartment.

Inside the apartments, authorities found broken glass, overturned furniture, and the bodies of the deceased, police said.

In an interview with investigators, Shana Decree said everyone in the apartment, including the children, wanted to die. She said that everyone was talking about suicide and she took part in the killings with her daughter and sister Campbell, who ended up being choked to death by Dominique Decree, authorities said.

Dominique Decree told detectives that she knew her mother and Campbell choked several of the victims before she killed her aunt.

At the time of her arrest, Dominique Decree had injuries to her neck.

The five family members who were killed and the mother and daughter all resided in the apartment.

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