Man who cut heart out of woman he killed before murdering two more people, including a child, jailed for life
An Oklahoma man who cut out the heart of a woman he murdered before killing two other people, including a child, has been sentenced to life in prison.
Lawrence Paul Anderson, 44, was jailed after pleading guilty to the 2021 murder of Andrea Blankenship, 41, Leon Pye, 67, and Kaeos Yates, four.
Prosecutors say that Anderson killed Blankenship and cut out her heart, before taking it to his aunt and uncle’s house where he cooked it with potatoes. He then tried to serve it to his uncle Leon Pye and aunt Delsie Pye, before killing his uncle and his four-year-old granddaughter.
The shocking attacks came just weeks after Anderson was released from prison as part of a mass commutation effort in the state.
Anderson pleaded guilty to three counts of murder in the first degree, one count of assault and battery with a deadly weapon, and one count of maiming. He received five life sentences, which will be served consecutively.
“There’s evidence in possession of my office as well as the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation that’s so shocking, after I reviewed it, it kept me up at night for weeks,” said District Attorney Jason Hicks.
“The intent of that agreement is to ensure he never steps outside of the prison. Not only that but to ensure that nobody can ever modify these sentences. That was something that was extremely important to not only my office, but also to the family members of the victims in this case.”
Anderson had been sentenced in 2017 to 20 years in prison for probation violations on a drug case.
Oklahoma’s governor Kevin Stitt commuted the sentence in 2019 to nine years in prison, and Anderson was released after serving a little more than three years behind bars.
“These families have lost pretty much everything. As you can imagine, Delsie Pye lost her husband and one of her grandchildren and was attacked at the same time. And watched both of those people, watched both of them die, watched Lawrence Anderson take their lives,” he added.
Prosecutors say they did not seek the death penalty because they felt a trial would continue to harm the family.
