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Robert Bever: Teen Who Butchered Family Enters Guilty Plea, Gets Life Without Parole

By Tito Ojo-Medubi
Published on: 20:00 PST, Sep 7, 2016

Robert Bever, the older of two brothers charged with fatally stabbing their parents and younger siblings last year has been sentenced to life without possibility of parole, Fox News is reporting.

The 19-year-old pleaded to five counts of first-degree murder and a single count of assault and battery with intent to kill. Robert Bever bagged five recurrent life sentences after reaching an agreement with the Tulsa County District Attorney, Stephen Kunzweiler, who agreed not to ask for the death penalty.

Robert Bever pleaded guilty to the brutal murders in a Tulsa County District Wednesday to the murder of his family in July 22, 2015. Robert alongside his brother, Michael, 17 stabbed their parents David Bever, 52, and April Bever, 44, and their siblings Daniel, 12, Christopher, 7, and Victoria, 5, to death in Broken Arrow, Tulsa.

Two children survived the night rampage, a 13-year old and a two-year old, both girls. Michael Bever remained silent all through the arraignment, prompting the presiding judge to enter a not guilty plea for him. His trial is penciled for June next year.

Tulsa County District Attorney, Stephen Kunzweiler gave the rationale behind reaching an agreement with Robert Bever and not pursuing the death penalty.

“Ultimately, the single most important factor in my decision to resolve this case centered upon the needs of the surviving two children who lost everything in their lives. Those children deserve to be able to move on with their lives…without the continued torment of a trial and decades of appeals that a death penalty case would most likely bring.”

Kunzweiler said Robert Bever deserved the death penalty for his part in the brutal killings of his family, but feared that his death penalty prosecution would coerce his teen to recall the harrowing details of the July killings.

“The surviving teenage child requested that I make sure that Robert Bever never gets out of prison. His plea and sentence guarantees he will spend the rest of his days left to his demons behind the walls of a penitentiary, where he will never draw a breath of free air again.”

The surviving sister said Robert had come up behind her and slashed her throat with a knife, thinking that she would die quietly, but she screamed. The teen girl said she tried to warn her five-year-old sister, Victoria to lock herself in the bathroom, but failed.

The sister told investigators that she made it to the front door but passed out on the lawn. She recalled that she woke up as Michael Bever began dragging her back into the house and heard her younger brothers, Daniel and Christopher screaming, before passing out again.

According to a CNN news report, Oklahoma police had responded to a 911 call and discovered a blood bath inside the Bever home. Broken Arrow, a Tulsa suburb of around 100,000 people was a middle-class and low-crime neighborhood that usually averaged a homicide every year. Never in the history of the area had police had five homicides in a single day.

Robert Bever and Michael Bever, who were 18 and 16 at the time, had bolted out the door as police arrived, but were tracked down by a police dog and taken into custody.

According to the Mirror, Robert Bever confessed that he was fascinated with serial killers and mass shooters, admitting that he had wanted to kill his parents since he was 13. He had worked at a call center to earn cash to buy helmets, body armor, knives, guns and rounds of ammunition. Robert convinced his brother to join him in the murders, telling him would make them “godlike.”

The Bever brothers had planned to take the family car after murdering their family members and kill random people. They believed they were killing people who were not contributing to society. Investigators say Robert Bever showed no remorse for his actions and laughed as he recounted his story.

[Photo by Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office/AP Images]

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