Jurors in North Carolina have convicted a man for murdering his mother and injuring his father in a beating he claimed was fueled by drugs and sleep deprivation.

Christopher McCullough was found guilty of first-degree murder Friday in the 2023 death of his 75-year-old mother Mary McCullough. Local ABC affiliate WTVD reported that McCullough was not convicted of other charges, included the attempted murder of his father and larceny of a dog.

He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The jury had deliberated for around seven hours after receiving the case on Thursday.

More from Law&Crime: ‘I wish you well in hell’: Daughter rejoices at sentencing of nurse mom who tortured her younger sister to death

The defendant’s father, John McCullough, testified against his son. According to a courtroom report from local CBS affiliate WNCN, the father told jurors ever since his son was seven, he was “uncontrollably violent” and had “superhuman-like strength.” They tried everything to treat his issues from sending to boarding school to stays at mental health hospitals. None of it worked. Eventually, he and his wife and obtained a domestic violence injunction against him and forbade him from entering their home.

But he ignored that order and entered the home on Aug. 8, 2023. He reportedly told jurors he was high on Adderall and other drugs and hadn’t slept in six days. He said he asked his parents for gas money. When they refused, he began beating his father — all in the presence of his 4-year-old son — though he did not admit to hurting his sickly mother, who used an oxygen tank and weighed just 100 pounds.

“Me and my dad got in a fight, I struck him twice to the ground, I noticed that my mother was face down,” he said, according to local NBC affiliate WRAL.

The younger McCullough then took his son and fled. Cops rushed to the home to aid the elder McCulloughs. There was blood everywhere and both victims were unconscious, cops testified.

“I noticed she had bruises and cuts on her arms,” Raleigh police Officer Phillip Merle said, per WNCN. “Because of the way she was laying, I noticed she had a large puddle of blood underneath her neck. My training officer asked who did this to her. And she was able to grunt out, ‘My son’.”

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She was rushed to the hospital where she died nearly a week later.

Christopher McCullough’s son, now 6, was not physically injured in the incident but has experienced post-traumatic stress disorder from witnessing the incident.

“[The boy] has disclosed witnessing the defendant hurting nanny and poppy,” his therapist Tara Pawlyk reportedly testified. “That poppy was on the ground while the defendant covered his mouth, limiting his ability to breathe. He has also disclosed nanny was laying on the stairs, [which] the defendant had bashed her head against repeatedly.”

At 36, murder defendant Orlando Mitchell will be a very, very old man if he somehow manages to live out his punishment for gunning down Krystal Walton, 32, the mother of his son, outside a day care. Records in Marion County, Indiana, show he was sentenced Tuesday to 66 years in prison for killing her and violating a no-contact order on Sept. 16, 2022. The 746 days of time-served credit — a little more than two years — puts a small dent in his remaining time.

This does not, however, take into account his upcoming murder trial for strangling Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy John Durm, 61, during a failed escape attempt on July 10, 2023. This is currently scheduled for August 2026.

The man charged with killing his attorney brother allegedly returned to the crime scene with family,  and cops arrested him in front of a media outlet.

Christopher Eaves, 49, is currently held on a $1.5 million bond, and if he manages to get out of custody pending trial, he cannot communicate with his own and his brother’s family, according to AZ Family.

Police in Phoenix, Arizona, claim that he carried out the shooting Friday, according to Fox affiliate KSAZ. Surveillance footage from next door recorded gunshots.

“The defendant went over to the victim’s house early yesterday morning and shot the victim, fired multiple shots,” prosecutors reportedly said. “He returned to his house with his parents, and Phoenix Police found multiple loaded weapons in the defendant’s car.”

Texas grandfather Jorge Arbaiza, 61, was just trying to pick up Happy Meals at a McDonald’s for his grandchildren when he got caught up in an unrelated dispute between two groups, according to Harris County authorities and his wife. One of the bullets fatally struck him.

His wife, Teresa Arbaiza, was with the two children in their car and called him after she saw an armed man, heard gunshots, and witnessed people running for safety out of the restaurant, according to CBS Houston affiliate KHOU. She could not enter the restaurant, or else leave the scared children behind.

“I’m dying. I’m going to die’” he reportedly said in his final words to her on March 16. His wife said he had been shot five times.

Arbaiza’s final act was to make the sign of the cross and pray as he died, authorities said.

A Texas court has sentenced a man for murdering a cancer researcher who had been out jogging.

As Law&Crime previously reported, police in the city of Plano said that Bakari Abiona Moncrief, 33, tried to break into a local home before fatally attacking Sarmistha Sen, 43, on a nearby trail the morning of Aug. 1, 2020.

“I ain’t a coward,” he told an officer.

Police had noted blood on his shirt and DNA on his body.

A Georgia jury this week convicted a man who skipped a court hearing and spent more than a year on the run avoiding charges that he murdered his wife in front of their young children in 2017.

Jonathan Bates was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife Cynde Bates, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB report. He also was convicted of manslaughter, aggravated assault and cruelty to children.

As Law&Crime previously reported, the Dawson Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Marshals Service arrested Bates in April. A bench warrant has been out for Bates’ arrest ever since he failed to show up to a court hearing in October 2022, records show.

Bates is accused of killing his wife Cynde Bates, 28, at their home in Dallas, Georgia, in May 2017. According to his indictment, he allegedly pushed her, causing her to fall and hit her head on a love seat. The incident allegedly happened in front of the couple’s children, ages 4 and 7.

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Criminal Justice

Wife convicted of murdering prominent attorney husband claimed to reveal real killer at her sentencing

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 9, 2024, 1:04 pm CST

A Georgia woman convicted of murdering and burning the body of her husband, a prominent Atlanta-area attorney, was sentenced to life in prison after a Dec. 5 sentencing hearing in which she claimed that the real killer was the man’s son.

Melody Walker Farris, 64, of Georgia was convicted last month for the 2018 murder of lawyer Gary Wayne Farris, who was the 58-year-old managing partner of the Atlanta office of midsize law firm Burr & Forman at the time of his death, Law360 reports.

Gary Wayne Farris was the chair of Burr & Forman’s lending practice and a member of the executive committee, the article reports. He was a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law.

Publications with coverage besides Law360 include Court TV, WXIA-TV, Courthouse News Service, Fox 5 Atlanta and the Independent.

Witnesses said Farris had two affairs before her husband’s death at their farm in Alpharetta, Georgia. She and her husband had also argued about money, and she stood to benefit if he died, prosecutors said. The Independent cited a report by the Cherokee Tribune & Ledger News that Farris was the beneficiary of a $2 million life insurance policy.

During the sentencing hearing, Farris said she has kept the real killer’s identity secret for six years. Courthouse News Service reported on her words.

“I want the world to know who did this. Not only did I not do this, I know who did,” Farris said. “I know Scott killed his father.”

Farris said her mother had advised her to take the blame for the killing, but she would no longer protect her son Scott Farris. Farris said she saw Scott Farris coming from the burn pile, where the remains had been found, and described other circumstances that she found suspicious.

The defense previously suggested that Scott Farris could be involved in the murder because he was missing a gun that had the same kind of bullets used in the killing, according to Courthouse News. Defense lawyer Michael Ray said investigators did not search for evidence in Scott Farris’ room, which was filthy in contrast to his spotless bathroom.

Investigators first thought that Gary Wayne Farris may have fallen onto the burn pile during a medical emergency. They later found a bullet in his rib cage.

A Wyoming man was found guilty of murdering his wheelchair-bound landlord after he tried to evict him from his rental property.

Burdick Nelson Seminole was convicted on all counts by a jury on Friday after being indicted for the first-degree murder of Michael Standing Elk. He was also found guilty of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and causing death with a firearm during a crime of violence. The verdict came after a four-day trial.