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Lawyer: Mom accused of killing sons 'very remorseful'

The mother accused of suffocating her two young sons and staging a car accident to cover it up says she's remorseful and has been speaking with the family minister, her attorney said Wednesday.
Shaquan Duley
Shaquan Duley arrives in court for her arrangement on murder charges in the suffocation deaths of her two toddler sons.Mary Ann Chastain / AP
/ Source: The Associated Press

The mother accused of suffocating her two young sons and trying to cover it up by staging an accident says she is remorseful and has been speaking with the family minister, her attorney said Wednesday.

"She's tearful, as anybody would be under these circumstances," defense attorney Carl B. Grant said after a brief hearing. "She's been very sad, very remorseful about all of this stuff, all of the allegations."

Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams has said 29-year-old Shaquan Duley expressed little remorse when she confessed Monday to killing her two young sons, ages 2 years and 18 months.

Duley, who is unemployed, told authorities she smothered the boys after a fight with her own mother, who badgered her about her failures as a parent and inability to provide for her family financially. She first told investigators the boys drowned after her car plunged into a river early Monday morning.

"She truly felt, 'If I don't have these toddlers, I can be free,'" Williams said.

About 80 relatives, friends and curious onlookers attended Wednesday's hearing, Duley's first court appearance since she was charged with two counts of murder. Her family has largely kept silent about her arrest, but before the hearing, her sister said she think Williams' portrayal of events has been fair.

"I don't feel that he's dragging my sister through the mud," she said outside the home she shared with her mother, sister, niece and nephews. "I actually feel that he's speaking fairly compassionately on her part."

Adriane Duley said her family has been too overwhelmed by the media attention to do day-to-day tasks such as taking out the trash or getting the mail, let alone grieving and planning two funerals.

"I've had enough," she said. "My family needs their privacy."

The house at 992 Hammock Street, in Orangeburg, S.C., where Shaquan Duley lived with her mother and three children, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Brett Flashnick)
The house at 992 Hammock Street, in Orangeburg, S.C., where Shaquan Duley lived with her mother and three children, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Brett Flashnick)BRETT FLASHNICK / FR119234 AP

A date for a bail hearing has not been set, and Grant said he would wait until then to lay out more details of his client's case.

"There's more to be said, but this is not the place to say it," said Grant, who was retained by Duley's family Tuesday and had not yet reviewed her confession. "I know the world wants to know, 'What happened with Shaquan Duley?' That will come out."

Duley lived with her sons, a 5-year-old daughter and her mother in a rented home in Orangeburg. Out of work and estranged from the children's father, she relied on her mother for support. But after the two argued Sunday night, Williams said, Duley left her daughter at the house and drove 2-year-old Devean C. Duley and 18-month-old Ja'van T. Duley to a motel several miles away.

Late that night, in a corner room tucked at the back of the rundown, one-story complex, Duley suffocated the boys with her hands, Williams said. She then strapped them back into their car seats, drove to a boat ramp some 10 miles away and rolled the car into the slow-moving water, investigators said.

Duley walked down a country road, flagging down a passing motorist to call the Highway Patrol at 6:15 a.m. Monday. A man on the tape of a 911 call released Wednesday tried to give an operator the car's location and information about the children. He can be heard asking someone else at the scene for specifics.

Asked whether the driver is also trapped, the man responds, "No, she got out some kind of way."

The children were still strapped in their child seats when divers found their bodies. The older boy had bruises that suggested he had been in a struggle, coroner Samuetta Marshall said.

Renuka Patel, who owns the motel, said she came to Wednesday's hearing to get another look at the woman she checked in late Sunday night. Deputies have removed the evidence tape that sealed off Duley's corner room, but Patel said she views the place more as a tomb.

"When we will see that room, we will just remember the children, how painful they must have been that night," she said. "How can she do that, to those children?"

Funeral services for both boys will be Friday at St. Paul Baptist Church, officials with Simmons Funeral Home said.

Dorothy Parker, a community organizer who saw Duley and her three children at a free school supplies event last week, said she has set up a fund where contributors can help with funeral expenses.

"My heart goes out to them," said Parker, who has a child of her own. "This is just so sad."

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Associated Press writers Jack Jones and Page Ivey in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.