A Pikeville, Tennessee, man convicted in an August jury trial of two counts of first-degree murder in the 2017 ax murders of a mother and her adult daughter has been given two consecutive life sentences.
Robert Joe Whittenburg was sentenced at a hearing in Sequatchie County Friday before Criminal Court Judge Thomas Graham to two consecutive life terms in prison in the Nov. 30, 2017, slayings of Deanna Lawrence, 46, and her daughter, Dedra, 24, according to officials.
The two women were hacked to death with a fireman's ax, according to testimony in August.
David Shinn, assistant district attorney in the 12th Judicial District who prosecuted the case along with fellow Assistant District Attorney Steve Strain, said the consecutive life sentences - 51 years each, under state sentencing laws - mean the 47-year-old Whittenburg would have to live more than a century to become eligible to parole.
Whittenburg's attorney, Sam Hudson, couldn't immediately be reached Monday for comment.
Family members of the victims were "very pleased with the sentence," Strain said Monday.
The home on Sawmill Road in Pikeville "was about the worst crime scene I've ever seen," he said.
The trial was moved to Franklin County because of heavy media coverage of the killings in the Tennessee Valley,and the jury of Franklin County residents was sequestered for the duration of the trial. Franklin is one of the six counties in the 12th Judicial District, which also includes Sequatchie County where Whittenburg was sentenced.
According to trial testimony in August, Deanna Lawrence's boyfriend, Jeff Seals, found the bodies on Nov. 30, 2017. Seals got off his construction job earlier than expected that day - he and Whittenburg worked for the same company but on different crews - and he was concerned because he had been trying to reach someone at the Pikeville home for hours without a response, and when he got there no one would answer the door and the house was dark.
Seals finally went to a back bedroom window where he knocked, broke the glass and made his way into the home to make the grisly discovery, he testified. He found Dedra Lawrence's body in the kitchen and Deanna Lawrence's in the living room, Seals testified.
Whittenburg took the stand in his own defense in August contending he had no memory of what happened to the women, though he recalled trying to kill himself by using medical supplies to attempt to drain out his own blood and hacking at himself with the ax, according to testimony.
After the guilty verdict in August, Natasha Stoner - Deanna Lawrence's niece and Dedra's cousin - said the family was satisfied with it.
"Obviously, there's no verdict that would replace our family members, however, that's enough justice on this side of heaven," Stoner said at the time.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton.