HILLSBORO — Fourteen-year-old Kiersten Leigh Jeter was terrified to face her mom in court, Hill County prosecutors said.

She didn’t have to.

Her mother, 33-year-old Debra Janelle Jeter, admitted Tuesday that she slashed her two daughters’ throats on June 5, 2009, killing 12-year-old Kelsey and critically injuring Kiersten.

Debra Jeter will spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Debra Jeter will spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole for the capital murder and attempted capital murder convictions.

Because authorities said transporting Jeter from the Hill County Jail to the courthouse posed a security threat, Jeter pleaded guilty to Judge F.B. McGregor of Hill County’s 66th State District Court via a live video feed from the jail.

Kiersten and her father watched the proceedings on video from another location, Hill County District Attorney Dan Dent said.

The Jeter family was unavailable for comment.

Debra Jeter made no comments in her defense.

Her lead attorney, Russ Hunt Sr., said Tuesday after the proceedings that his client suffers from borderline personality disorder and never received proper treatment.

Court documents have revealed that Jeter has long suffered from depression, but the extent of her mental illness is unclear.

After finding that she was competent to stand trial, Hunt said his client decided “the most compassionate thing she could do for her surviving daughter would be to plead guilty.”

Jeter was remorseful, Hunt said. Some days, she would speak of the stabbings with uncontrollable sobs.

Other days, she’d speak of the ordeal matter-of-factly and with a straight face, Hunt said.

He said she often talks of how proud she is of both Kiersten and Kelsey.

Per the plea agreement, Jeter pleaded guilty to a life sentence on the attempted capital murder charge and life without parole on the capital murder charge.

“The death penalty was definitely a possibility through this process,” Assistant District Attorney Nicole Crain said. “We discussed it with the family, and they had mixed emotions.

“They really did not want this to go trial.”

Motive a mystery

The question of motive still persists among investigators.

Hill County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Stephen Girsh said detectives never established a clear motive.

They could only speculate that she snapped as a result of problems in her marriage.

Dent said she stopped speaking with investigators within an hour of calling 9-1-1 just after 9 p.m. June 5, 2009, from an abandoned, sprawling ranch house in Hill County and telling dispatchers she had just killed her two daughters.

Deputies arrived to find Jeter, who is 6 feet tall and weighs 195 pounds, with both hands in the air, holding a cell phone.

A knife was lying on the roof of a nearby car.

Inside, Kelsey Leeanne Jeter, a redheaded Girl Scout, honor roll student and band member, was dead.

Kiersten Jeter was clinging to life.

Kelsey (left) and Kiersten Jeter

She had been stabbed multiple times in the back while trying to protect her sister.

It was the day after a restraining order, which kept Debra Jeter away from the two girls, ended.

Court documents reveal that Jeter attempted suicide May 21, 2009, at her Hillsboro home, with Kiersten and Kelsey present.

She was revived and treated at the DePaul Center in Waco. The next day, Debra Jeter’s husband of nine years filed a temporary restraining order.

In his request for the order, Lee Jeter wrote he was “concerned about her possible actions regarding the children.”

But in a June 4, 2009, hearing, Lee Jeter granted his wife unsupervised visits with their daughters.

At 6 p.m. the next day, Debra Jeter picked up her daughters for a weekend at their Hillsboro home and told them she had a surprise for them.

She called 9-1-1 about three hours later.

When investigators began piecing together evidence, they found a chilling message that Kiersten had posted on her MySpace page the day before:

“I get to see my mom tomorrow! Yay!” she wrote.

equinn@wacotrib.com

757-5748

RELATED SEARCHES

• Jeter to 9-1-1: 'I just killed my children'