East Haven Mother Who Killed 2 Children Sentenced

EAST HAVEN, CT — LeRoya Moore, 39, who was found guilty earlier this year of killing her two children back in May 2015 was sentenced Thursday to the maximum number of years allowed, which is 120, the New Haven Register reports.

The sentence was handed down by a panel of judges. Moore, 39, was found guilty of murdering her two children, Aleisha Moore, 6, and Daaron Moore, 7, by a three-judge panel in March 2019.

During the trial, a defense witness testified that Moore believed it was God's plan that she kill herself and her children in order to get into Heaven, the New Haven Register then reported. A prosecutor's expert testified that Moore was not in a psychotic state at the time of the murders.

>>>Read More at the New Haven Register.

*Background on the murder case from 2015 Patch stories:

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner informed the East Haven Police Department that they have declared the deaths of both Aleisha Moore, 6, and Daaron Moore, 7, homicides by acute intoxication of diphenhydramine. Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine compound used for the symptomatic relief of allergies and the common cold.

Daaron, 7, and Aleisha Moore, 6, were allegedly stabbed and possibly poisoned by their mother, LeRoya Moore, 36, before she intentionally turned on the gas in their 541 Strong Street house in East Haven, court records revealed at the time.

LeRoya Moore was charged on June 10, 2015 with two counts of murder and three counts of reckless endangerment for the death of her two children, Daaron, 7, and Aleisha, 6, police said.
Moore told investigators, "I stabbed them .. I released them," reports the Hartford Courant citing court documents from 2015. In a note left near the children, Moore allegedly wrote, "I know this was meant to end the way it did. I don't know the reason why, but we were meant to die today." She went on to write that, "They were in pain and now they're in heaven."

On the day of her children's deaths, Moore wrote, according to court documents, that she made sure they did their favorite things including eating ice cream and painting their nails, the Courant reported back in 2015.

Police arrived at 541 Strong Street around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2, 2015 and found the two children, Daaron, 7, and Aleisha, 6, deceased.

Police were only called to the house after a friend of the mother's called 911 saying she received a note from Moore indicating she planned to take her own life. The friend went to the house, and Moore told her that she had cut herself, the friend said on the 911 call.

Three days after the tragedy, East Haven residents and officials held a vigil on the Green to help facilitate the healing. Wallingford-based funeral home, B.C. Bailey Funeral Home, stepped up and generously agreed to fund the children's funeral expenses, Fox CT reported back in 2015.