Lesser Sentence Not Death, Life Imprisonment

To help bout those who are sick and mentally disturb. BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - A Birmingham man was sentenced to death this afternoon for his conviction in the 2010 stabbing deaths of three relatives, including his 12-year-old cousin.

Dontae Callen, 20, was sentenced by Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Laura Petro.

"This is a senseless, senseless case," Petro said during the hearing.

Petro told Callen there has been no reasonable explanation given for his actions. "It is one of the more heinous cases I have seen. ... Three people are dead for absolutely no reason," she said.

Callen was convicted of capital murder charges by a jury in July in the Oct. 29, 2010 stabbing deaths of his aunt, Bernice Kelly, 59; and his cousins Quortes Kelly, 33; and Aaliyah Budgess, 12, and setting fires in the apartment after the slayings.

Callen had confessed to police.

The jury had recommended that the judge sentence Callen to death.

Before imposing the sentence, Petro heard from several of the more than dozen Callen relatives who were in the audience - several who argued against the death penalty and one, speaking on behalf of the others, who agreed with it.

Lisa Brown, the daughter of Bernice Kelly speaking on behalf of her and Aaliyah Budgess' mother, said that she believed the jury's recommendation for death was just. "There was no reason for him to do what he did," she testified.

Brown said that she had a brother who is mentally disabled and she still has to tell him that their mother won't be coming back. "Each time I have to do that it just tears a piece of my heart out," she said.

Callen's grandmother, Beatrice Brown, however, asked the judge to spare her grandson's life. "I don't know why he did this ... for him to do something like this he had to be out of his mind," she said.

Deputy Jefferson County District Attorneys Patrick Lamb and Julie McMakin had prosecuted the case and had sought the death penalty.

"If you apply the law in the state of Alabama this case requires the death penalty," Lamb said after the sentencing. "The family felt that justice required the imposition of the maximum penalty allowed under the law."

Defense attorneys Ron Thrasher and Don Colee had argued for the judge to override the jury's recommendation for the death penalty. Among their arguments were that Callen hadn't been in trouble before, that he has a low IQ, he was only six weeks past his 18^th birthday when the slayings happened, and that he didn't have a stable home life, bouncing around among family as a child and teen - including awhile with Bernice Kelly.

Thrasher, after the hearing, said it will now be up to an appeals court. "I'm just against the death penalty and I think life without the possibility of parole is a more appropriate sentence," he said.

"There is no one who wins in this case," Thrasher said.

Petro has appointed Callen an appellate attorney and today set a hearing for Oct. 16 to consider a motion she expects to get for a new trial. That's the first step in the death penalty appeals process. This kid is tuly disturbed.