A California teenager was sentenced to life behind bars after he fatally shot his father and autistic brother – and then tried to disguise the crime as a homicide-suicide.
Robert Cotter, who lives in Fresno, now 19, had set the double murder in May 2021 on his 15-year-old brother, but police turned to him when they found out he had searched the internet to get a murder for to look like a suicide, reports. said.
Cotter later testified before police, refusing to deny the allegations.
“I do not know what his problem was with his father who made him want to commit murder but to execute his brother?” Kelly said according to KFSN. “It was a cold-blooded murder of a child who had done nothing wrong.”
The teenager waited until his father, Patrick Cotter, 53, and younger brother, Brian Cotter, fell asleep in the family’s mobile home on May 16, before shooting his father in the head and back with a Colt gun. according to Fresno Bee.
Police found out that Cotter committed the killings after discovering Internet searches he made about murder. KFSN
“His brother woke up and started running away, but he pulled his brother back by the collar and shot him in the head,” prosecutor Daniel Walters said in court, according to Bien.
Cotter, then 18, called 911 and said Brian was behind the shooting, but he was arrested in July after police found his suspicious Internet searches, including questions about how to shoot a 1911 Colt and “what happens to your stimulus check” , if you die ?, ”the bee reported.
Robert Cotter sentenced to life for killing father, brother
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/LKM43HBHCFHC3N73KIW2IPBAOI.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "California man gets life for killing brother, father and then claiming it was murder-suicide 💥👩👩💥")
