Officials: Father made similar threats before

• By KIMBERLY VETTER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 7, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 11 a.m.

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Deputies responding to a call about two children in danger Sunday night broke into a Bluebonnet Boulevard apartment to find the father stabbing one of the boys to death and the other boy lying in a pool of blood, authorities said Monday.

Clayton Lee Murphy Jr., 30, allegedly killed his sons — Tayshaun Murphy, 2, and Juwan Murphy, 8 — to get back at his estranged wife, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said at a Monday news conference.

Murphy’s wife, Renata M. Murphy, 28, alerted authorities Sunday from her Baytown, Texas, home that her husband called her and told her he had killed one of their sons and that he was going to kill the other son, Gautreaux said.

Renata Murphy made a similar call four years ago to Baker police when Clayton Murphy allegedly held a knife to the throat of the couple’s then only child, Baker Police Chief Mike Knaps said Monday.

Clayton Murphy Jr. was not arrested at the time but taken to an area hospital for a mental evaluation, Knaps said.

Deputies received the call from Renata Murphy at 6:48 p.m. Sunday, Gautreaux said. Deputies were dispatched three minutes later to Clayton Murphy’s third-story apartment in Bluebonnet Towers on the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries campus at 7410 Bluebonnet Blvd., he said.

A communications supervisor with the Sheriff’s Office talked to Murphy while deputies were en route, Gautreaux said. Murphy told the communications supervisor, who was trying to persuade him not to harm his children, that it was too late, Gautreaux said.

Deputies arrived at Bluebonnet Towers at 6:55 p.m., knocked on Murphy’s apartment door but got no answer and had forced their way into the barricaded unit by 7:08 p.m., Gautreaux said.

Once inside the small, one-bedroom apartment, deputies found Juwan Murphy lying in a pool of blood on a bed, Gautreaux said.

Deputies found Clayton Murphy in a bathroom, holding a knife and standing over his 2-year-old son, Gautreaux said.

Deputies used a Taser stun gun on Murphy twice and fired a shot at him but missed before pulling Murphy off Tayshaun, Gautreaux said.

Tayshaun was pronounced dead at the scene, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

Juwan, who was a third-grader at Westminster Elementary, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, Hicks said. Both boys suffered multiple stab wounds, she said.