Jurors on Thursday afternoon at Winchester found Robert Joe Whittenburg, 47, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2017 killings of his girlfriend Dedra Lawrence and her mother Deanna Lawrence. Whittenburg was found to have hacked the two women to death with an axe.
Whittenburg was sentenced to life in prison.
“To the members of the family, there’s no way anybody can replace your loss,” Judge Thomas Graham said. “But I believe the jury has done all they can do as far as putting importance upon their lives. That’s what the system is here for. ”
On Nov. 30 in 2017, Pikeville police found Whittenburg covered in blood and unconscious, while Deanna Lawrence and her daughter Dedra were both found deceased because of multiple axe wounds. Throughout the three-day trial, Whittenburg was heard saying he was the only person who could have done the act, but did not admit to killing the two women.
Earlier on Thursday, a prosecutor told the jury that Whittenburg "had to make a conscious decision" to kill his girlfriend and her mother at a Pikeville residence in 2017.
Prosecutor David Shinn said during closing arguments, “This man had to go into the kitchen and pick up the axe. You don’t do that without making a choice.”
The prosecutor also drew the jury’s attention to several statements Whittenburg made during both a recorded 2017 interview and in his statement on the witness stand on Wednesday. Whittenburg concluded, “It must have had to be me” but did not say that he knew he did it.
“She’s running for that kitchen door and trying to get out, and she’s hacked from behind,” prosecutor Shinn told the jury, calling the attack obviously premeditated.
Defense attorney Sam Hudson cited previous testimony that framed Dedra and Whittenburg’s relationship as troubled. He pitched the idea that the night the murders occurred, Whittenburg was possibly provoked into killing both women after they began to fight. He asked for the jury to find him guilty of voluntary manslaughter if they did not acquit, calling his actions “an act of passion.”
“If you think he did that, it is evidence of someone who has lost his mind,” attorney Hudson said.
Prosecutor Strain said “this is not a who-done-it” and that the evidence pointed to Whittenburg murdering both women, and there was no justification for his actions. The prosecutor was also skeptical of Whittenburg’s statements claiming to not remember anything that happened during the murders.
“What provocation could justify or provoke him to pick up the axe and hack them? There is nothing he can say to justify hacking those women to death,” prosecutor Strain said. “That’s why he claims to not remember it, because he remembers everything else.”
“There is no way to spin it,” the prosecutor said before asking the jury to find Whittenburg guilty of both counts of first-degree murder.
After closing arguments, the jury received their instructions and began to deliberate at 11:30 a.m.
The trial was moved from Bledsoe County to Franklin County after a change of venue motion was filed.
The trial started on Tuesday morning and there were a total of 10 witnesses, which included Deana Lawrence’s boyfriend, TBI agents, and others.