Lawyers defending a Ponte Vedra woman charged with murdering her twin 4-year-old boys are dealing with new, incriminating information in the case.

In March 2001, police arrested Leslie Demeniuk (pictured, left) and accused her of shooting her children. A judge sealed many of the court documents in that case, but one statement by a detective in the case was never sealed.

The deposition of St. Johns County sheriff's investigator Jay Lawing was supposed to be kept from public view under a court order, along with other records sealed in the case. I was found in some court documents by a reporter with The St. Augustine Record.

Lawing said his interview with Demeniuk led him to believe that the killings were done to punish the twins' father, her ex-husband, Thomas Demeniuk.

"As an investigator, I see this as she got angry at her ex-husband and did something really egregious to get back at her ex-husband," Lawing's deposition said.

According to Lawing's deposition, Demeniuk said: "I went in the closet and got the pistol down off the shelf. The bullets were underneath the foam and I loaded the pistol. ... I shot both boys in the head. I think I shot Jamie first. I think I shot one of them twice."

After her arrest, Sheriff Neil Perry said that Demeniuk's blood-alcohol level was almost four times the legal limit for driving.

Lawing said Demeniuk was very withdrawn and quiet on the afternoon of the killings.

Thomas Demeniuk could not be reached for comment. His telephone number is no longer listed.

Leaving the deposition unsealed was a mistake, said Circuit Judge Robert Mathis, who is presiding over the case and is the county's administrative judge.

Asked by Channel 4's Heather Murphy about why the document wasn't sealed, the court clerks said the judge's order was difficult to interpret, even by seasoned workers.

"It's just, we were trying to interpret what he was meaning in the order, because we thought it was a grey area." St. Johns County Clerk of Court, Cheryl Strickland, said Thursday.

The deposition has since been sealed.

Assistant State Attorney Norma Wendt, who is prosecuting the case, said the accidental release of the deposition "opened up a can of worms." She said she wants to try the case in St. Johns County, despite the mistake.

Demeniuk's Jacksonville attorney William Sheppard declined to comment on the impact of Lawing's statement being made public.

On March 17, 2001, Demeniuk's boyfriend called 911 after finding the slain boys and her lying on a bed, holding a handgun, according to transcripts of the call.

Demeniuk, who was 31 at the time, and her sons, James and John, had been living with her father in his Sawgrass condominium during her divorce.

Preparation for her trial has been kept from public view since a July 2001 court order that sealed documents in the case.

The seal was ordered by Mathis in response to publicity in an effort to protect the integrity of the trial.

That St. Johns County investigator said Demeniuk told him she killed her children. He thinks it was because she was trying to get back at her ex-husband.