A 'smart' and 'sane' North Carolina teen has admitted to stabbing and bludgeoning his parents to death over slight and routine punishments, like depriving him of his iPod.
Eight knives, an aluminum baseball bat and crowbar, all coated in blood: The grisly scene which unfolded at the 1000 block of Bland Street in Norfolk, Virginia last December is more befitting of horror movie fodder, or Tarantino torture fantasy. But the violence was very real, and the murderer, rather than a serial killer or mafia hit man, was a 10th-grade-honor student who had grown tired of what by all definitions was soft parental admonishment.
On Wednesday, 16-year-old Vincent Parker admitted in court to killing his parents, claiming he had grown tired of their seemingly routine punishments.
“I just remember getting mad,” he told investigators. “It’s all from my dad. All this stuff like my dad taking away my iPod and stuff,” local CBS affiliate WTKR cites him as saying.
The revenge he meted out for those slight infractions beggars belief.
Autopsy reports show how, on December 19, Vincent armed himself with eight kitchen knives, an aluminum bat and a crowbar. He then went upstairs to find his mother, Carol Parker. When his mother emerged from the bathroom, Vincent doused her with pepper spray, stabbed her in the eye, and then beat her in the face and head with a baseball bat and a crowbar “until she stopped breathing.”
The beating was so savage, medical examiners identified over two dozen separate stab and gash wounds. She died on the floor near her bed. The homicidal teenager then went downstairs to wait for his father to come home.
According to an officer’s report, Vincent first hit his father with the crowbar and then stabbed him in the chest and back. When Vincent left this house, his father managed to call 911, telling the first officers his son had attacked him and killed his wife. When emergency crews arrived on the scene, they found Wayne Parker in the living room suffering from injuries to his abdomen and face. He succumbed to his wounds at a local hospital later that night.
Vincent is being tried as an adult and pled guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. A psychiatric evaluation showed Vincent was both sane and intelligent. If convicted, he faces decades behind bars.
Vincent was a habitual social media user, regularly hosting online chats and posting the transcripts on his Facebook page. In 300 plus posts, the honor student never expressed anger against his parents. Vincent said he enjoyed tennis and art and wanted to be a police officer.
However, one post which would usually be dismissed as teenage frustration took on a far more sinister light following the murder.
When asked what crimes deserve the death penalty, he replied, “Ummm, make your son do chores.” In another post, he said it was possible to justify murder.
Defense attorney Emily Munn told the judge that she hoped the court would consider letting Parker serve “at least part of his sentence” in a juvenile facility.
His grandfather, Allen Taylor, told WTKR he has forgiven Vincent and says he hopes his grandson can get counseling.
“We had to give it to God,” he said. “He is the only one who can help us now.”
Sentencing is set for September 18.