Brothers Connor and Brandon Doran along with a fourteen year old friend Simon Evans would beat a homeless man to death in Liverpool England. According to court documents these teen killers were walking around Liverpool late at night when they came across the victim sleeping in the streets. The three teenagers would proceed to beat the victim who would die in hospital six days later from his injuries.
Connor and Brandon Doran, whose older brother is serving a life sentence for murder, mother would provide a false alibi for her sons however in the end they would be arrested, charged and convicted of the murder. Connor Doran must serve at least 12 years, Brandon Doran must serve at least six years and Simon Evans must serve at least eight years.
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Three teenagers who murdered a homeless man in Liverpool for a dare have been given custodial sentences.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Kevin Bennett, 53, was attacked as he slept outside a supermarket on 17 August.
He suffered a fractured eye socket, a collapsed lung and a broken ribcage and died in hospital six days later.
Brothers Connor and Brandon Doran, aged 17 and 14, and Simon Evans, 14, were told they would be detained until the home secretary approved their release.
Passing sentence, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, said: “I think it is a desperately sad reflection on this society that each of you was party to serious violence purely for the sake of it.”
Connor Doran, labelled the “leader of the pack” by the judge, was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years.
Evans was ordered to serve at least eight years and Brandon Doran received six years for acting as lookout during the attack.
The three boys, who all denied murder, were found guilty in February following a four-week trial.
The Doran brothers’ mother, Linda Doran, 42, was jailed for 30 months after being convicted by the jury of perverting the course of justice by providing false alibis for her sons.
Her eldest son, Ryan, 23, was convicted of murder and jailed for life in October after he attacked a stranger with a bottle in a chip shop.
Another of her sons, Jordan, 21, was jailed for six months in February for contempt of court after using a mobile phone to capture images of the courtroom during the trial of his brothers and mother.
The judge described Linda Doran as a “pathetic and tragic character”.
He said: “You have another son who is serving life for murder. There are not many parents who have that sort of personal agony to bear.
“But then again, not that many mothers would have shown themselves to be either so unwilling or unable to shoulder the responsibility of motherhood as you have.”
The court had heard Mr Bennett had been in a pub from 11:00 BST on 16 August and had consumed up to 12 cans of lager.
He left at about midnight with a bag containing cans of beer and slept rough behind an Iceland store on County Road, Walton. He was attacked at about 05:30 BST the following morning.
The jury was told Connor Doran had goaded Evans by saying: “I bet you haven’t got it in you to do him in.”
Evans later told his friend: “I started kicking him, I booted him and now he’s dead.”
Brandon Doran stood lookout as the attack took place, the prosecution said.
Mr Bennett was described as “vulnerable” and a “heavy drinker” by the prosecution.
He died in hospital from blood poisoning after an infection set in, causing organ failure.
Det Insp Cheryl Rhodes, who led the investigation, said: “The defendants went out looking for trouble that night and CCTV shows them roaming the empty streets in the early hours of the morning.
“The suffering Kevin endured before his death and the pain and heartbreak inflicted on his family can never be taken back, but I hope that the conviction and sentencing of these young men brings them a sense of closure and justice.”
Speaking outside court, Mr Bennett’s cousin Angela Connerty, 49, said: “Justice has been done and that’s all we wanted as a family.
“We keep asking, why did they pick on him? We will never, ever know why they did that to him.”
The “exceptional and unforeseen” behaviour of a teenage killer has led a judge to reduce his minimum jail term.
Simon Evans was ordered to serve a minimum of eight years after being convicted of murdering Kevin Bennett in Liverpool with two others in 2013.
London’s High Court heard Evans, who was 14 at the time, had since become a “role model” for other prisoners.
Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said as a result, he could now apply for parole in February 2020.
Evans and brothers Connor and Brandon Doran, aged 17 and 14, attacked 53-year-old Keith Bennett as he slept outside a supermarket on 17 August 2012. He died in hospital six days later.
The High Court heard the now 19-year-old Evans, who also tried to get his minimum tariff reduced in 2017, had admitted delivering the first kick, but was not “the principal protagonist”.
The judge was told that he had acted as a mentor to other prisoners, as a listener for the Samaritans and been the standard bearer for a prison Remembrance Day service in 2015.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said a psychiatrist had reported Evans was “gutted” about what he did and was described as “a polite and gentle boy who follows the rules” with “exemplary” behaviour.
A charity he worked with described him as having “masses of compassion”, she said, adding that he wanted “to look ahead in his life, complete his education and become a sports teacher”.
As a result, she said the “time has come” to mark Evans’ “positive approach” and “willingness to take every possible step he can to achieve his long-term life goals without repeating the errors of his youth”.
Connor Doran, labelled the “leader of the pack” by the judge, was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years and Brandon Doran received six years for acting as lookout during the attack.
Sandy Charles was fourteen years old when he and a eight year old accomplice lured a seven year old boy to an abandoned lot and tortured then murdered him. Canada does not charge children under twelve and the eight year old accomplice has never been named. This teen killer would be found not guilty by reason of insanity and has been kept in a mental health facility since his arrest
Residents in the normally quiet community of La Ronge, Sask., 400 km northeast of Saskatoon, reacted with shock and disbelief last summer when a local teenager was charged with first-degree murder in the brutal stabbing death of seven-year-old Johnathan Thimpsen. But it was not until last week, when 14-year-old Sandy Charles stood trial in adult court in Saskatoon, that the full horror of the crime sank in.
After the lanky teenager pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, the court heard how Charles and an unnamed eight-year-old accomplice lured Thimpsen into the bush near his home. Charles repeatedly stabbed Thimpsen and crushed his skull with a 12-lb. rock. Then, apparently mimicking a ritual he saw in the 1991 movie Warlock, Charles tore 15 strips off Thimpsen’s body and boiled the flesh into liquid fat. After his arrest, Charles told police he was in the thrall of spirits when he committed the murder. “I started to think about killing,” he said. “Something wanted me to.”
Most of the testimony last week centred on the teenager’s motivations and state of mind at the time of the killing. Defence lawyer Barry Singer said that Sandy Charles had been deeply affected by Warlock, which he viewed at least 10 times in the days leading up to the murder. Like the title character in the movie, Singer said that Sandy Charles believed he would become a son of the devil and be able to fly if he drank the boiled fat of an unbaptized male child.
Singer also called psychiatric experts who testified that Charles was suffering from a serious mental disorder and that he had lost touch with reality when he ended Thimpsen’s life.. But prosecutor Robin Ritter suggested that Charles could tell right from wrong and noted that he and his accomplice—who could not be charged because of his age and who is now in a foster home—had decided to kill a child 10 days before the murder and selected Thimpsen as their victim. Ritter also said that Sandy Charles had told youth jail staff that he hoped to be declared insane so that he would be sent to a psychiatric hospital and released in two years.
The trial was to continue this week. But it has already revived the thorny debate over
the impact of violence in the media. Wendy Josephson, a University of Winnipeg psychologist who has studied TV violence, told Maclean’s that so-called copycat murders tend to follow a familiar pattern, with the perpetrator strongly identifying with a violent movie, ruminating and finally acting on it. She added that the most vulnerable are those adolescents who tend to think what they see in the visual media is real and who do not have enough counterbalancing positive influences in their lives. ‘There is a cost to having so much exposure to violence,” she said. “What we have to decide as a society is what to do about it.”
Back in La Ronge, residents had more immediate concerns as they reached out to comfort one another at church services and healing circles. Beyond the gruesome evidence in the case, observed local United Church minister Heather Wyatt, the most shocking aspect was the age of both the perpetrators and victim. “That’s not supposed to happen,” she said. “Children are not supposed to kill children. Something is very wrong.”
Child-killer Sandy Charles says he wants to be transferred to Saskatchewan Hospital at some point within a year.
Charles made the claim in a Saskatoon provincial courtroom Wednesday, appearing in front of a review board via video from the Regional Psychiatric Centre (RPC), where he is currently incarcerated.
In 1995, a 14-year-old Charles and an 8-year old accomplice killed a 7-year-old boy in La Ronge, Sask. after stabbing the boy with a knife and beating him to death with a beer bottle and a rock. Charles cut off strips of the boy’s flesh and cooked them. He claimed he was inspired by a horror movie and was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Charles has spent the majority of his time in custody at RPC but was transferred to Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford, Sask. last year. He was later transferred back to RPC after behaviour issues, which he said were on purpose because he wanted to leave the facility.
RPC operates as both a hospital and a penitentiary with similar security to a maximum security facility, while Saskatchewan Hospital is a psychiatric rehabilitation centre.
A representative from the Saskatchewan Hospital said Charles would have to adhere to more rigid institutional rules if he was going to be successful at the facility. Experts on the review board questioned Charles, asking him how he would approach this transfer differently.
Charles stated that he was “working on” his behaviour issues, specially mentioning his anger problem, and that he has attempted to socialize more with other RPC inmates.
He said he wants to be transferred to Saskatchewan Hospital so he can go through the process of eventually being released to the public.
Kayla Dixon was sixteen years old when she shot a man during a robbery in Georgia. According to court documents Kayla Dixon and her boyfriend 20 year old Nathaniel Vivien met the victim through a Craiglist ad where he was selling a Playstation 4. When the victim refused to hand over the video game system Kayla Dixon would grab a gun she had hidden and fatally shot the man. The teen killer and her boyfriend were soon arrested and ultimately she would plead guilty and be sentenced to forty years in prison
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MAJOR OFFENSE: VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: ARRENDALE STATE PRISON MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: 09/11/2054
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A Doraville teen will spend 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing a man during the Craigslist sale of his video gaming system.
Kayla Dixon, now 18, took the plea on the same day her trial was to begin.
Prosecutors say Dixon and her boyfriend, Nathaniel Vivien, responded to a Craigslist ad posted by Danny Zeitz in September 2014, intending to rob him. When Zeitz resisted, Dixon admits she took a gun out from between her legs and fired off a fatal shot.
“I would trade anything, almost anything, to bring Daniel back. But I know I can’t,” Dixon said through tears in a prepared statement. “I know he had plans. I wish I could tell him I’m so, so sorry that this happened, but I can’t.”
Dixon’s attorney told Judge Wendy Shoob her client had a rough childhood, that included rape and several failed relationships with men who were involved in criminal activity.
“Nothing, in any way, excuses what happened, but this is, in some way, an explanation of how things led to being where they were,” said Leah Abbasi.
Dixon asked Zeitz’s family to forgive her.
“I want Daniel’s family to know that I regret that day. I’m so sorry. I ask that God heals the hearts of Daniel’s loved ones,” she said. “I know I’m facing a long time away and I hope one day my apology will matter.”
Shoob said what happened was tragic for everyone involved and accepted the negotiated plea deal.
Beforehand, Zeitz’s mother, Patty, spoke of the grief her family has endured.
“Each day we wake, even a year and nine months, with the shocking realization that life as we knew it with our son, brother and friend will no longer exist,” she said. “The loss of Danny has reached the depths of our hearts, souls and the hearts and souls of thousands around the world of his gifts of kindness and joy.”
Zeitz, a semi-professional gamer, had fans around the world and was the subject of a documentary entitled “Level Up” after his murder.
After the hearing, Zeitz told Petchenik her family accepts Dixon’s apology, but says it will be a long time before they can forgive her.
“At first I didn’t want to accept her apology. I thought her apology today was very heartfelt and I feel like she is truly sorry for what happened,” she told Petchenik. “It’s just a crime that young people can get caught in these situations because of the examples they’d had in their lives.”
Zeitz’s father, John, told Petchenik he hopes Dixon can be rehabilitated in prison.
“I hope it stays with her and she becomes a better person and able to contribute when she finally does get out,” he said.
Dixon’s co-defendant, Nathaniel Vivien, still faces a trial later this summer. Dixon’s attorney told the judge she is willing to testify against him if asked.
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Kayla Dixon is currently incarcerated at the Arrendale State Prison
Brycen Caudill was sixteen years old when he would murder his mother in Ohio. According to prosecutors Brycen Caudill would attack his mother before school, beating the woman with a bat and stabbing her several times. The woman was able to get to a neighbors home however she would die from her injuries. Brycen Caudill would flee the scene and would walk for over ten miles before this teen killer would turn himself over to authorities. Brycen Caudill would be sentenced to life in prison however is eligible for parole after fifteen years. He would plead guilty to murder and domestic violence
Brycen Caudill, 17, DeGraff, pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to murder before Logan County Common Pleas Court Judge Kevin Braig.
Brycen was arrested Aug. 16 for the murder of his 36-year-old mother Crystal Caudill at their 207 E. Main St., DeGraff, residence.
Law enforcement reports indicate the teen attacked and stabbed his mother multiple times with a wooden baseball bat and knife in her bedroom before school, around 7 a.m.
Crystal Caudill was able to run away to a nearby property, and it was a neighbor that contacted authorities. She was pronounced dead at Mary Rutan Hospital.
Brycen fled the scene, and traveled more than 10 miles on foot to a residence at 10029 Trestle Road, St. Paris, where he eventually turned himself in to authorities. Deputies from the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call, and the teen was taken into custody at that location.
In October, the defendant was charged with murder, felonious assault and domestic violence in Logan County Juvenile Court. His case was later bound over to adult court because of the nature of the charges.
Logan County Prosecutor Eric Stewart said the defendant will only be indicted on the murder charge as the result of a plea agreement.
Brycen, who has been lodged in the Logan County Juvenile Detention Center since his arrest, will be sentenced at 9 a.m. on April 30.
He faces 15 years to life in prison.
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A high school student received a maximum sentence Thursday before Logan County Common Pleas Court Judge Kevin Braig for the August murder of his mother at their DeGraff home.
Brycen Caudill, 16, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for one count of murder.
He was ordered to pay restitution and and will have to enroll in Ohio’s violent offender database, which requires him to report his address within 10 days of his release from prison, and every year for a period of 10 years.
Brycen has also been credited with 259 days of jail credit. He pleaded guilty to the charge in March.
Brycen was arrested Aug. 16 for the alleged murder of his 36-year-old mother Crystal Caudill at their home at 207 E. Main St. residence.
Law enforcement reports indicate the teen attacked and stabbed his mother multiple times with a wooden baseball bat and knife in her bedroom before school, around 7 a.m.
Caudill was able to run away to a nearby property, and it was a neighbor that contacted authorities. She was pronounced dead at Mary Rutan Hospital.
Brycen fled the scene, and traveled more than 10 miles on foot to a residence at 10029 Trestle Road, St. Paris, where he eventually turned himself in. Deputies from the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call, and the teen was taken into custody at that location.
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Brycen Caudill is currently incarcerated at the Ross Correctional Institute
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Brycen Caudill is serving a life sentence however is eligible for parole in 2034
Nathaniel Dickson was eighteen years old when he murdered his entire family in South Carolina. According to court documents Nathaniel Dickson was kicked out of his apartment for stealing from his roommate, his girlfriend broke up with him and he failed to qualify for the Marines when he moved back home. Soon tensions in the house increased and on the day of the murders Nathaniel Dickson would shoot and kill his father, stepmother, stepsister and brother.
This teen killer was soon arrested and would be quickly convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole
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Nathan Dickson hung his head, barely looking at Judge Cordell Maddox as he admitted gunning down four members of his family more than a year ago without any real motive.
Nathaniel Dickson pleaded guilty today and was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility for parole, for the deaths of his father, Andy Dickson; his 14-year-old brother, Taylor; his stepsister, Jiliam Salazar; and his stepmother, Maritza Hurtado Dickson.
“In my nine years, this is the most unexplainable and despicable things I have ever seen in my courtroom,” Maddox said, looking at Nathaniel Dickson. “Your brother and your stepsister ? their unlimited potential is gone and wasted.”
“It bothers me that you can’t even tell me why.”
Dickson, who is 20, remained silent as his uncle and another stepsister stood in court, tears in their eyes. He did not move, holding his hands in front of him, as his mother, Patricia Dickson, sobbed in the courtroom.
“Thank you for accepting my plea, and I apologize to the families,” Dickson said.
Tenth Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams said the Dickson and Hurtado families both argued against pushing for the death penalty in the case. She said the families thought a lifelong jail sentence would be more of a punishment to Dixon than even a death sentence.
“I want him to remember his little brother, his father ? I want him to remember,” said Nadine Salazar, as she stared at her stepbrother.
The hearing was the end to a case that began April 26, 2008, and according to prosecutors, defense attorneys and investigators was unusual because of Dickson’s apparent lack of motive.
Adams said there were some incidents in the weeks before the slayings that hinted at trouble.
Dickson had been kicked out of an apartment in Anderson for stealing a roommate’s credit card. His girlfriend had broken up with him. When he tried to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, he scored too low on the entrance exam to get in ? something he later lied about to friends. He stole about $600 in change from his father.
And there was tension in his parents’ home when he moved back in and wasn’t working.
“Nothing really rises to the level of explaining why this happened that day,” Adams said. “This was a family that loved each other.”
Even in his confession to police in the hours after the slayings, Dickson did not explain why he shot his family.
“I don’t know why I killed my family today,” Dickson said in the statement. “Once I loaded that shotgun and shot Maritza, I could not stop and I did not stop until I shot them all. It hurts inside and I really can’t believe it’s real. I am concerned how all of this may affect my enlistment in the Marine Corps. I am sorry for all the trouble I have caused. It just hurts inside.”
In the statement, which the solicitor read at the hearing, Dickson said he and his father had a disagreement around 2 a.m. that Saturday, because he had come in too late. After a “fitful” night of sleep, Dickson woke, went to his brother’s closet for some clothes and found a 12-gauge shotgun his brother used to hunt squirrels.
Dickson picked up the gun, loaded it and found his stepmother and fired one round, killing her. As his stepsister ran to the kitchen, he followed her and shot her in the laundry room.
Then he found Taylor, yelling at him to stop. Dickson described knocking his brother out, only to come back later and shoot him in the head as Taylor cried for help.
In all, he reloaded the shotgun five times.
Dickson stalked his father, shooting him several times. He struck his final blow as his father called 911 for help. In his statement, Dickson said his father “rolled over and told me ?I love you’ before I took my last shot at him.”
Dickson then left the house and drove to Belton where he spent the day riding four-wheelers with a friend, never mentioning what had happened in his home just hours before. Officers later tested Dickson and he was given a mental evaluation.
What authorities ? including Dickson’s attorneys, Kurt Tavernier and Andy Potter ? found was that Dickson was not drunk nor was he under the influence of any drug when he shot his family. A Greenville psychiatrist, Robert Richards, testified for the defense. He said he could not find evidence of a mental illness that would give attorneys grounds for an insanity defense.
“This kicks at your gut because this was a good family,” Tavernier said. “Nathan was a good kid and we don’t know what made him snap.”
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Nathaniel Dickson was going through a rough patch in his life. The teen and his live-in girlfriend had broken up and he was dealing with tension from moving back in with his parents a year after graduating high school and going out on his own.
Still, the 18-year-old politely answered questions on a visit to a friend a week ago, according to the friend’s mother. Nathan Dickson text messaged the same teen Friday, saying he was going to ride four-wheelers with friends. Less than 12 hours later, authorities say Nathan Dickson gunned down his father, stepmother, 19-year-old stepsister and 14-year-old brother at their home Saturday morning in this suburban South Carolina community. He has been charged with four counts of murder, leaving friends and neighbors trying to grapple with how the quiet teen who loved video games and sports and always called women “ma’am” could be capable of the largest killing spree officials in this county of 180,000 can recall in at least 50 years.
“I can’t put my finger on what happened,” said Melissa Funk, whose 16-year-old son, Robbie, was good friends with both the suspect and youngest victim. “It’s not what I’ve known him to be.“ Dickson’s mother, Patricia Dickson, screamed and cried as he appeared before a county magistrate on a closed-circuit television for a brief hearing Sunday night, the Anderson Independent-Mail reported. The teen remained motionless as the judge read him his rights and said a higher court judge would have to hear any request for bail. Magistrate James Cox told the newspaper Dickson has confessed. “But he can’t say why he did it,” the judge said. Anderson County Sheriff David Crenshaw refused to release any additional details of the shooting Sunday. “I’m going to have this case tried in the courtroom, not out on the streets,” Crenshaw said.
Nathaniel Dickson is the only suspect in the case and more charges could be filed against him, the sheriff said. He did not have an attorney at Sunday’s hearing. The sheriff said he can’t remember ever dealing with the teen before Saturday’s quadruple homicide. The killings unfolded in a one-story house with tan siding and bright blue shutters in a wooded neighborhood about five miles from Easley. A plastic tricycle and basketball goal were overturned in the yard Sunday. An orange notice stuck to the front door warned of biohazard material inside and recommended calling someone to clean up before entering.
Just to the left of the front door was a window for the laundry room where authorities say one victim was found behind a clothes dryer. The blinds were up and the inside pane of glass had a fist-sized hole in it. The outside pane was not damaged.
Samuel Andrew Dickson Jr., 46, died as paramedics arrived after someone called 911 Saturday morning to report a man injured in the yard of the home. Officers then went inside and found the bodies of his wife, 46-year-old Martiza Hurtado Dickson; his 19-year-old stepdaughter, Melissa Giliam Salazar; and his 14-year-old brother Taylor. All were shot to death. Authorities refuse to say how many times they were shot, where they were found in the home or release other details.
Neighbors said the family was quiet and kept to themselves. Joyce Allen’s husband worked with Samuel Dickson, who went by the nickname “Andy.” The elder Dickson was an electrician with Vulcan Materials, a company that provides crushed stone, sand and gravel for construction. Dickson didn’t say much at work, keeping to himself. Most of Allen’s memories are of him with his sons.
“He was crazy, crazy, crazy about those kids,” Allen said. “I’d see him running up and down the road, taking them to ball games.“ Taylor Dickson had just made one of the junior varsity baseball teams at Wren High School a year after failing to make the cut. His father, who had coached his youth teams, was so proud he bought him several Wren High school shirts and caps, said Melissa Funk, whose son was friends with the Dickson boys.
Funk said she thought the two brothers seemed close, so when word came four people were dead inside the home, Funk said she figured the fourth victim might be the stepsister’s boyfriend, and Nathaniel Dickson and his brother escaped with their lives. “I figured we’d find him safe with Taylor, or that it had to be something else,” Funk said.
Neighbors said they didn’t see Martiza Dickson much. She was a native of Colombia and worked as a translator. Melissa Salazar graduated high school last year and was going to technical college, Funk said. Funk said her 16-year-old son is taking what happened hard. He had been hanging around with Dickson since the two families moved in the neighborhood about five years ago. Dickson’s younger brother would tag along too. “He’s heartbroken,” Funk’s husband, Robert, said. “Those were his only friends in the neighborhood.“
Nathaniel Dickson graduated from high school last year and moved in with his girlfriend, working a series of fast-food and restaurant jobs. The two broke up and Dickson moved back in with his parents about two weeks ago, said Funk, who wasn’t sure if he had found another job before the killings. The last time the son saw Dickson was Friday evening in the driveway. Funk said her son told her that Dickson’s eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he needed to sleep. Dickson later sent a text message to him saying he was out with friends, Melissa Funk said.
Sitting on her couch the day after the killings, Funk recalled with tears in her eyes the only time she remembered Dickson getting in trouble. She was coming to pick up her son at the high school and the teen was sitting outside the principal’s office. “I said, ‘Nathan, what are you doing here?’ And he said, ‘Mrs. Funk, I have holes in my blue jeans.’
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A US man has confessed to stalking and methodically murdering four family members in their home, reloading his shotgun five times before firing the final shot into his father as the man said: “I love you.”
Nathan Dickson, 20, pleaded guilty to four counts of murder as part of a deal that will allow him to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Dickson did not say why he killed his father, stepmother, stepsister and younger brother at their home in Easley, South Carolina, in April last year and prosecutor Chrissy Adams said the motive might never be known.
Defence lawyer Kurt Tavernier said not being able to work out why he killed his family gnawed at Dickson every day
Adams read Dickson’s confession in court. He had been arrested hours after the killings – spending the time before police found him riding four-wheelers with a friend.
Dickson said he woke up that Saturday morning and saw a shotgun while looking for some of his clothes in his 14-year-old brother’s closet. The killing began when he shot his stepmother, Maritza Dickson, 41, while she was in bed talking to her daughter.
Dickson’s stepsister, Jiliam Salazar, 19, was killed after running into the kitchen screaming.
He punched his brother, Taylor, in the head when he yelled at Dickson to stop, and shot him.
Dickson then went to father’s bedroom to get more ammunition and shot his brother again.
The second shot went into Taylor’s head as he was sprawled across a chair crying for help, according to the confession.
Dickson’s father was out of the house when the killings began. Dickson said he shot him first in their back yard, then, after going to the bedroom to get another shell, shot him again at the edge of the front yard.
After firing the last shot at his brother and getting one final shell, Dickson said he went to the front yard and confronted his father, who had called police.
I don’t know why I killed all my family today. Once I loaded that shotgun and shot Maritza I couldn’t stop and I did not stop until I had shot them all
“He rolled over and told me, ‘I love you’ right before I took my last shot at him,” Dickson wrote in his confession, adding he then slammed the stock of the shotgun into his father’s head like a club because he was still breathing.
Adams said she decided not to pursue the death penalty because the victims’ relatives were strongly opposed to it, and because Dickson had no criminal record and was 18 at the time of the murders.
While Dickson vividly recounted the killings for nearly two weeks afterwards, he cannot remember them now, his lawyers said.
But Adams said the confession matched physical evidence, right down to how many times the victims were shot.
Dickson had several problems just before the killings. The Marines rejected him, but he told people he had already served in the military. Money went missing from his house and he had just broken up with his girlfriend, Adams said.
But Dickson called his father his hero on his MySpace page and friends told investigators he appeared to get along well with his stepmother and stepsister. He was a decent student in high school and well-liked by teachers and friends. There were no drugs or alcohol in his system, Adams said.
The confession gives no clues.
“I don’t know why I killed all my family today. Once I loaded that shotgun and shot Maritza I couldn’t stop and I did not stop until I had shot them all,” Dickson wrote, adding he was concerned it would affect his chances of enlisting in the Marines.
The confession also includes what Dickson did after the killings. He threw the gun into the woods, put on sandals and drove to a nearby convenience store for water and smokeless tobacco. He then bought a chicken biscuit with his stepsister’s debit card, but was so sick he ate only two bites. Then he rode four-wheelers with a friend.
Nathaniel Dickson apologised after pleading guilty.
“The question that will go unanswered – what was it that caused him to snap?” Tavernier said. “We’ll probably never know.”
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