www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12165301/

Wife admits neglect; more haunting photos expected today when she takes stand

By JAMIE SATTERFIELD
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
April 5, 2006
Three-month-old Lex Arson Tallant had two caretakers.One of them broke 18 of his ribs, three of them twice, and fractured his arm and his leg in the days before his death.

One of them created an ugly patchwork of bruises, cuts, scrapes and burns on his body.

One of them attacked him on the day he died, breaking five more of his ribs and striking him in the head with such force that his brain swelled.

His mother will take the witness stand today in Knox County Criminal Court to point the finger of blame at the boy's father for a slaying deemed the most horrific instance of child abuse ever investigated in Knoxville.

Her husband will point the finger of blame right back at her.

Sarah Tallant, 30, comes to the witness stand bearing the weight of the state's case against her husband, Blake Delaney Tallant, 33, who is standing trial this week for Lex's slaying. Blake Tallant faces three murder charges and a possible sentence of life without parole if convicted.

Knoxville Police Department Officer Krista Sheppard and KPD Investigator Ken Slagle told jurors Tuesday what they saw when they arrived at the couple's Knott Road house on Aug. 14, 2002. Through the officers' testimony, prosecutors Steve Garrett and Marsha Mitchell tried to paint a portrait of a hysterically worried mother and an unconcerned father.

The pair of prosecutors used testimony from Murray K. Marks, a forensic anthropologist and associate professor at the University of Tennessee, to plant in jurors' minds graphic images of suffering that the baby endured.

Marks testified that 18 of Lex's ribs had been broken as early as two weeks before his death. Three of those ribs showed two prior fractures. Five of the baby's six remaining ribs showed signs of fresh breaks at the time of his death, Marks said.

Prior fractures of bones in the baby's arm and leg went untreated, Marks said.

"The bone was broken," he said. "It was never set."

Darinka Mileusnic, a forensic pathologist in the Knox County Medical Examiner's Office, will serve up today even more haunting snapshots of the broken bones, bruises, brain swelling, cuts, tears, burns and scrapes she documented on Lex's body. She will tell jurors that the baby also had pneumonia, and methamphetamine was found in his bloodstream, Mitchell said.

But none of those witnesses can tell jurors who committed these horrors on this 3-month-old.

Prosecutors are looking to Sarah Tallant to do that.

Knox County Public Defender Mark Stephens on Tuesday scrawled a proverbial bulls-eye on her chest in opening statements, making it clear that Blake Tallant's defense will center in large part on tossing guilty arrows right back at his wife.

Mitchell revealed in opening statements that Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols has inked a deal with Sarah Tallant in which she will receive a 20-year prison term. She will be eligible for parole after spending a third of that sentence behind bars.

"She does admit she is guilty of neglect," Mitchell told jurors.

Stephens contended in his opening statements that Sarah Tallant did more than neglect her son. She killed him and is lying about it to save herself, Stephens said.

"She's agreed to testify because the state bought her testimony," Stephens said. "Sarah Tallant has made several statements. Repeatedly, she has told us that a number of things she told the police were not true. Those things that were true she grossly exaggerated."

Stephens characterized Sarah Tallant as a methamphetamine addict and harried mother trying to take care of the couple's 3-year-old son and Lex with no help from her husband, also a methamphetamine user.

"She resented the fact that she had her hands full," he said. "She will tell you she took meth every single day she was pregnant. She will tell you she took it twice on the day Lex died."

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Someone just load the gun and take them out back and kill them.  Please.

 This makes me cry.

According to all I know and believe, rest assured.

There is a special place for vermin like this, and it ain't Purgatory.

It's kind of a lake of fire.

If anybody deserves the death penalty, it is these... I don't know what to call them. The should be the poster children for the Pro-Death Penalty camp. Cruel and unusual punishment doesn't exist for these two.

Please tell me these people will burn in hell for this

These people will burn in hell for that.

Quoted: Please tell me these people will burn in hell for this   These people will burn in hell for that.

A very special hell.

Both are guilty.

And should be shot.

there isn't much to say as I can't think of a suitable punishment for both parents.

I would love to be the one to drop the hammer on those SOB's.  In fact I would pay money to execute them.

I cannot read these stories without shedding a tear.  How can this f'n happen? WTF do people like this breed for?  Why can't they be tortured?

Damn

sounds like a future filled with weeping and gnashing of the teeth.

Quoted: The State could cure their budget woes by a lottery that would let the winner drop the hammer on both of them.

Oh damn, dude - that is an awesome idea.

Quoted: Quoted: The State could cure their budget woes by a lottery that would let the winner drop the hammer on both of them. Oh damn, dude - that is an awesome idea.

+1
The one lottery I would actually play.  Hopefully they would let you bring your own weapon to use.

 That's why I couldn't be a Cop.  I don't think they would have made it to jail alive if I was the arresting officer.

It just makes you wonder how much evil is loose on this earth.  Wow, just....wow.

They both should be staked in the center of a fireant mound.

Pathetic scum

Quoted: Both are guilty. And should be shot.

The imperfect, sinful human in me says +1.  

But vengence is the Lord's, not ours.  And while I think it would be comforting to me as a man to think that there would be a special punishment in hell waiting for them, the truth is that no man knows the place either of these two people have in the eyes of God, or how they will be judged.  Should they show true repentence for their horrible sin between now and their final days, would the Lord not forgive them?

It is truly a sad story.  It makes me weep for the poor child, though he's in a better place now.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

they will

Quoted: Please tell me these people will burn in hell for this   These people will burn in hell for that.

And I say we should get them there as soon as possible.

they will experience pain no one has felt before for eternity



I love my parents, i was very fortunate to have them.

Quoted: Both are guilty. And should be shot.

+1  Or have their ribs cracked and hit with such force that their brains swell too.

If you are an atheist, they will simply die and that will be the end of it.

However, if you believe in the God of Joseph, Isaac, Abraham, Moses, John, and Paul, they will spend eternity suffering the unendurable.

God our Father and Jesus our Savior were very clear in their thoughts and actions toward those who harm the innocent and prevent children from being able to come to them.

Hell is beyond our earthly comprehension.  And that's a shame.  If more people believed in hell, they'd take everything else much more seriously.

Quoted: Hell yeah, you get to bring your own weapon and ammo. The State saves in 2 ways.

Instead of stationary targets, could they be moving targets? Or pop-up targets?  

We need gulags

So tweekers are not good parents?

Those people will burn in HELL for that.

Burn in hell?

I hope not. Maybe little Lex Arson Tallant will ask God to forgive his parents for their inhuman crimes against him. And maybe God will be merciful, he’s the only one that knows the full truth of what really happened. Maybe there are mitigating circumstances we just don’t know. I’ll leave all that up to God’s perfect wisdom.

But I do know that we ought to give these two an express ticket to judgment before God.

Way I figure it, some crimes are just beyond the human ability to judge and punish. A guilty life can’t atone for the death of an innocent life and there’s no other torture or punishment that can bring back Lex and give him the chance at life he was entitled to.

And besides, both of these people are too dangerous to ever let out in public ever again.

Since we can’t properly judge or punish them, nor can we ever allow them access to other people, we should just shoot then and leave justice up to the Almighty.

Quoted: Quoted: Both are guilty. And should be shot. The imperfect, sinful human in me says +1.   But vengence is the Lord's, not ours.  And while I think it would be comforting to me as a man to think that there would be a special punishment in hell waiting for them, the truth is that no man knows the place either of these two people have in the eyes of God, or how they will be judged.  Should they show true repentence for their horrible sin between now and their final days, would the Lord not forgive them? It is truly a sad story.  It makes me weep for the poor child, though he's in a better place now. Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

Ain't nothing wrong with speeding up their judgment day

Quoted: If you are an atheist, they will simply die and that will be the end of it. However, if you believe in the God of Joseph, Isaac, Abraham, Moses, John, and Paul, they will spend eternity suffering the unendurable. God our Father and Jesus our Savior were very clear in their thoughts and actions toward those who harm the innocent and prevent children from being able to come to them. Hell is beyond our earthly comprehension.  And that's a shame.  If more people believed in hell, they'd take everything else much more seriously.

If GOD said it's better to commit suicide, then you bet there is a HOLY WHOOPING comming to them when they arrive. So it must be better if they commit suicide and go straight to HELL than to face GOD first. ( Shivvvvvvering)

Mathew
18:6 “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,5 it would be better for him to have a huge millstone6 hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea.7

I just chipped a tooth clenching my jaw so hard.  I'm not kidding.

Quoted: Hell yeah, you get to bring your own weapon and ammo. The State saves in 2 ways.

Ammo?  No, no no.  A bullet (or 50) would be too peacefull of an end for anyone capable of this.  I'm thinking rusty buck kinfe...

Quoted: Please tell me these people will burn in hell for this   These people will burn in hell for that.

Either that, or the Lord will put them somewhere far worse, which they deserve.

Sorry, but my capacity to forgive doesn't extend that far.

Crimes like this against kids are the ones that really get me
I say get medieval on them

That is so horrible, I couldn't finish reading it...enough said..."get a rope".

As a father of three little children (ages 5, 3, and 1), I could not read past the first sentence.

That's all I can say.

Quoted: That is so horrible, I couldn't finish reading it...enough said..."get a rope".

Yep,get a rope,and feed them to sharks/bears,wolves............

"Vengence is Mine ...Sayth the Lord"   ,   God's busy...he sent me instead.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Both are guilty. And should be shot. The imperfect, sinful human in me says +1.   But vengence is the Lord's, not ours.  And while I think it would be comforting to me as a man to think that there would be a special punishment in hell waiting for them, the truth is that no man knows the place either of these two people have in the eyes of God, or how they will be judged.  Should they show true repentence for their horrible sin between now and their final days, would the Lord not forgive them? It is truly a sad story.  It makes me weep for the poor child, though he's in a better place now. Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas... Ain't nothing wrong with speeding up their judgment day

I do not disagree with that at all.  Abuse of a child that results in these kinds of injuries should be a capital crime, especially if the result is death.  An eye for an eye.  Send them before God if they are convicted and let him judge and have vengence.  But no man should act as they did to deliver punishment, even in righteous anger.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

I just couldn't read the whole article.  I just couldn't.

I like to think I have a fairly strong stomach, but there are things I cannot handle.  This is one of them.  

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.  

I once read that "All gifts are from God, man merely being the channel for gift-giving".  If that's the case, why can't punishment be as well?

Part of me feels sorry for all three of them.  As harsh as it sounds, my only comfort is knowing that when those two tweekers come back in the next lifetime, the suffering that they have given out in this lifetime will then become theirs to endure.  

And where the hell do I sign up for the lottery!?  I'm all out of forgiveness today, and I'm willing to sell the house for the privilege to speed them on their journey.

However, I'm sure that someone else will have the privilege.  Not the state, but another ward of the state.  Prisoners frown upon pedophiles and baby-killers.  I'm sure that they will be put in solitary, for their own safety.  But they all have to come out sometime.  And prisoners have LONG memories.

Let's not wait for Hell, Burn them now.

Anyone that rejects the message of the gospel, which is the message of salvation from sins, will burn in Hell.  The Bible also states that no murder has life abiding in him.

the kid was probably crying all the time, I say the kid got what he had coming to him.
i hope no one thinks i'm serious

Quoted: Someone just load the gun and take them out back and kill them.  Please.

A fast death is too good for them. Both should suffer hell on earth first.