Family pastor blames mental illness for mom killing 3 children, says survivors need prayer

The pastor of a maternal great-grandmother of the five children brutally stabbed by their 25-year-old mother which resulted in three of them dying in Italy, Texas, last Friday blamed the attack on mental illness and urged the public to pray for the two children who survived and their grieving family members.

“This is the end result of a mental instability that’s gone awry," Pastor Preston Dixon of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church in Ellis County told Fox 4 in an interview. “Something happened, mentally, and that’s where we are.”

The children’s mother, Shamaiya Deyonshana Hall, has been arrested and charged with three counts of capital murder and is in custody with bail set at a collective $6 million.

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A press release from the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office said an investigator with Texas Child Protective Services visited the home where the children were staying last Friday and decided to remove the children. Preston said the house belongs to the children’s great-grandmother.

The Ellis County Sheriff’s office was contacted at approximately 4 p.m. but five minutes later, at 4:05 p.m., officers with the Italy Police Department were shocked by what they found when they arrived on the scene.

They discovered a 6-year-old boy, who has been identified by relatives as Legend Chappelle, and his 5-year-old twin siblings — a boy and a girl — dead. Two other children, a 4-year-old boy and his 13-month-old sister, are still alive and were transported to Children’s Hospital Dallas in critical condition.

And Hall’s family is no stranger to tragedy. In June 2021, her twin sister, Troyshaye Hall, confessed to stabbing a 16-year-old family friend and killing her 7-year-old daughter, who she claimed was being sexually molested, Fox 4 reported. She was later found incompetent to stand trial and is in custody at the North Texas State Hospital. Authorities say her daughter, Madison Petry, was stabbed more than 30 times.

Dixon, who was authorized to speak with the media on behalf of his parishioner, said the surviving children have been "coming through surgery after surgery."

“We’re thankful and grateful for that. Pray for us. We need it," he said.

Dixon, whose church plans to hold a candlelight vigil on Thursday to remember the children who died, said amid all the tragedy he wanted the public to know that the children were loved.

"This family loved those children," he insisted. “Regardless of what it looks like, those children were really loved. That’s the message."

He suggested that there may have been some confusion in the way CPS handled the case as Hall’s family was under the impression that she was about to regain custody of the children. He also said the CPS visit was unannounced.

"We thought the situation would bring about full custody in the next month," he noted.

Tanya Reese, the grieving paternal grandmother of 6-year-old Legend Chapelle, told Fox 4 that she was trying to get custody of him but now it’s too late.

“It’s like a horror movie,” she said.

Reese said her grandson who celebrated his birthday last October loved basketball and Spider-Man.

A GoFundMe campaign is now seeking to raise $60,000 to help with funeral expenses.

“Legend was a happy and healthy 6-year-old boy. He loved Spider-Man. He loved his siblings. He loved school and just being a normal 6-year-old,” a message from campaign organizer Shantae Haymer said. “His life was violently cut short by his own mother.”