TEXAS CASE Man seeks divorce from wife who killed sons

Deanna Laney was found innocent by reason of insanity in her sons' slayings.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
TYLER, Texas -- Keith Laney filed for divorce Thursday, a month after his wife, Deanna, was found innocent by reason of insanity of bludgeoning two of their sons to death with rocks and badly injuring a third.
The divorce petition also asks a court-at-law judge to give the 45-year-old air compressor repairman sole custody of the couple's surviving 2-year-old son, Aaron.
Deanna Laney, a 39-year-old housewife, has been undergoing treatment at Vernon State Hospital since shortly after the jury returned its verdict April 3 after a six-day trial in the attacks on her sons last Mother's Day weekend.
Four psychiatrists testified in the trial that she was so severely mentally ill that she did not know she was doing wrong when she killed Joshua, 8, and Luke, 6, and maimed Aaron. After a closed April 23 hearing, State District Judge Cynthia Kent ordered Laney held for at least 90 days at the hospital. Her commitment will be extended as long as the judge rules that she is a continuing danger to herself or others. Under state law, she could be held there for the rest of her life.
Keith Laney has refused to talk about his wife's actions or his ordeal. His divorce lawyer, Robert Hughes Wilson, could not be reached to comment Friday.
Costs of hospitalization
Deanna Laney's criminal defense lawyer, F.R. "Buck" Files Jr., has said Keith's family members have expressed concern that he might have to pay for his wife's court-ordered hospitalization -- a sum that state hospital officials say amounts to almost $14,000 a month.
Files said earlier this month that state hospital officials informed Laney's family shortly after her arrival at Vernon that her husband would be financially responsible for her care. A hospital spokesman has said that state law requires the facility to seek reimbursement for the $462-per-day cost of her treatment, just as any hospital asks any family to tap its insurance policies and assets to pay for their relatives' care.
Files' fee is being paid by the county because Deanna Laney was found to be indigent at the time of her arrest because she had no income of her own. But like her trial, the costs of her hospitalization could be enormous.
Even filing for divorce may not help Keith Laney avoid his wife's medical costs. Some legal experts say that he will be considered responsible for his wife's expenses until a divorce decree is final, a process that could take months. And any property that the couple owns jointly could be subject to liens from the state hospital to cover Laney's medical bills.
Laney slept through the attacks on his sons, awakening when deputies responded to his wife's call to 911 that she'd just killed her boys on orders from God.