The only thing worse than shooting both your parents dead for exercising deserved discipline is shooting your parents dead and conjuring up an alibi that your father killed your mother before turning the gun on himself.
But that’s exactly what Jesse Madison Holton did.
The 17-year-old from Eclectic, Alabama was charged as an adult with one count of first degree murder for killing his father, former Eclectic mayor Mike Holton, and a possible first degree murder charge for killing his mother, April Holton. They were both just 37 years old.
The motive for the cold-blooded murders was due to the discipline his parents attempted to impose on their son for throwing a party at their home while they were gone.
According to Daily Mail, Mike and April came home Sunday to find their home completely trashed, with a weed pipe laying out in plain sight from a rager their son threw the night before.
Mike then restrained his son by using handcuffs and called the sheriff’s department at 4 pm. Maybe a slight overreaction, but obviously pales in comparison to their son’s retaliation.
The sheriff showed up to their home and collected evidence from the party before Mike told the sheriff he would sign a juvenile warrant against his son the following day. Jesse reportedly has a history of anger and emotional troubles, and this very well could have been the last straw for his parents. Jesse later told authorities that he gets “easily agitated when he doesn’t have access to weed and Adderall.
20 minutes after the sheriff left his house, Jesse went over to a neighbor’s house and told them that his parents were fighting. The neighbors then called the cops, and the same cop showed up to the home to find Mike laying motionless with a 9 mm gunshot wound to the head in the master bedroom and his mom fighting for her life right near him. She was put on life support and died the next day.
Jesse tried to claim that his father committed a murder-suicide, but authorities immediately poked holes in his story.
Per Daily Mail,
With the angles of the wounds and the entry and exit points of the wounds, there is just no way Mike Holton could have shot himself,’ [County Sheriff] Bill Franklin told the Montgomery Advertiser.
‘April suffered defensive wounds to her hands, where it appeared she threw her hands up as if shield herself.
‘The bullet went through one of her fingers and then into her head. So there was no way April could have shot herself either. The 17-year-old’s story just didn’t add up,’ Franklin said.
Jesse repeatedly denied shooting either of his parents and told police he was handcuffed in the back.
Franklin said: ‘Obviously we feel he slipped out of the handcuffs, or got the key somehow to remove the handcuffs, before he did indeed shoot his mother and father.’
Jesse has been detained and Franklin reports that he has shown no emotion since killing his parents.
He is being held on $150,000 bail.
[h/t Daily Mail]