Ethan Orton Wiki – Ethan Orton Biography
A 19-year-old man in Iowa will spend at least half a century behind bars for stabbing both parents with a Bowie knife, killing his father, and then using an ax to finish off his mother when he realized she had survived. the initial stabbing.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill on Monday ordered Ethan Orton to serve a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 50 years, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
Judge Thornhill technically sentenced Orton to two life sentences, one for each of his parents, but decided that the teenager would serve them at the same time.
Orton pleaded guilty in February to two counts of first-degree murder for the gruesome 2021 murders of his parents, Misty Scott-Slade and Casey Orton. While Iowa state law generally requires that first-degree murder convictions go accompanied by mandatory sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole, Orton was a minor, just five months shy of his 18th birthday, at the time of the crime.
Following a precedent set by the US Supreme Court in 2012, Iowa’s highest court in 2016 barred life sentences without parole for minors.
A sentencing hearing on Monday
According to a report in The Gazette, Orton’s defense attorney requested a life sentence in prison with the possibility of parole in 10 years. He argued that Orton’s parents emotionally abused him for years and planned to cut ties with him when he turned 18.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, allegedly noted that Orton had never been diagnosed with any form of mental illness and emphasized that the “heinous” attack on his parents was premeditated and showed a rational thought process when he exposed his weapons up front and waited. to sleep before the killings.
Ultimately, Thorton reasoned that Orton was nearly 18 at the time of the murders, the lack of physical or sexual abuse, and the brutal and planned nature of the attack by placing a minimum of 50 years on the sentence, according to The Gazette. Speaking on his behalf, Orton told the court that he had regretted what he had done, but said that he eventually “made peace” with it.
“I even said I’d give my left arm just to get them both back, see what I could do, but I had to realize that this is what it is today, and luckily I made my peace with that.” he said, according to CBS News.
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The Double Murder
The Cedar Rapids Police Department said he received a call on October 14, 2021, around 2:10 a.m. m., about a suspicious person at 361 Carnaby Drive NE. Once there, first responders found Ethan Orton sitting outside, covered in blood.
According to the criminal complaint, he quickly admitted to killing his parents, and police located both bodies inside the home.
Police said that in an interview with detectives, Orton said he killed his parents to “take over his life.”
From the complaint:
The officers transported the defendant to the police station for questioning, where he admitted to killing his parents to “take over his life.” He stated that he used a knife to stab them both and then used an ax to kill his mother when she appeared to be still alive after the first attack.
One thing in particular that supposedly triggered Orton was an email from his mother about cutting him out of his life.
“The email essentially said: ‘When you turn 18, you are out of the house. We’re done with you. Plan to leave,” said Dr. Tracy Thomas, a forensic psychologist who testified Monday. “This offense was the result, essentially, of a total collapse.”
Orton will be 67 when he is first eligible for parole.
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