MISSOULA — Leannah Jean Gardipe was sentenced in Missoula on Monday for killing her two children as they were sleeping.
Gardipe was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in the custody of the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services by Judge Robert Deschamps.
In August 2023, Gardipe admitted to two counts of deliberate homicide.
The children were 3 and 5 at the time of the murders on Nov. 19, 2021, at their Patty Ann Drive residence.
Court documents state Gardipe's mother called 911 to report that her daughter had called her and that Gardipe said she "saved her babies."
She asked her daughter if that meant she had killed her children and then she began crying.
A few minutes later, Gardipe called 911 and said she "want(ed) to report a murder."
Gardipe told 911 that the crime happened that morning and that it was done with a knife.
Gardipe asked to send medical personnel. According to court documents, Gardipe told 911: "I was supposed to die today."
Sheriff's deputies found the children in their beds with knife wounds and defensive marks on their hands.
During a search of the home, officers found a note at the threshold of the bedroom where the children were found that read " [i]t was the only way that we all wouldn't burn, now I'm the only one of us that will."
Deputies recovered the knife underneath the bed.
