'I had to do it': Man hands rifle over to victim's wife and walks away slowly after putting bullet in dad's head

A Missouri antheral volition walk decades down bars for shooting and killing his begetter successful a transgression helium insisted "had to" beryllium done.

Late past week, Carter Joshua Curtis, 20, pleaded blameworthy to 1 number of second-degree murder for sidesplitting 41-year-old John McMurphy.

Immediately pursuing Curtis' blameworthy plea, 27th Judicial Circuit Court Judge M. Brandon Baker sentenced him to 20 years successful situation with recognition for 613 days spent successful pretrial detention.

The underlying incidental occurred connected Sept. 28, 2024, astatine a residence connected 8th Street successful Adrian, a tiny municipality astir 55 miles owed southbound of Kansas City and portion of the broader metro area.

At 11:23 p.m., Carter called 911 to study that helium had changeable his father, according to a probable origin statement filed by the Adrian Police Department. Various instrumentality enforcement agencies arrived wrong minutes of the exigency call, constabulary say.

"I arrived connected scene," an serviceman wrote successful the charging document. "I met 2 achromatic females successful the driveway that were hysterical."

There was besides a juvenile contiguous outside, the serviceman wrote. The papers is heavy redacted but notes that idiosyncratic shouted arsenic constabulary began to survey the scene: "He has ne'er been violent."

Inside, the serviceman described seeing the unfortunate disposable from the entryway. The older antheral was recovered dormant with a wide "gunshot coiled to the head," lying look down connected the room floor, constabulary said.

The limb was a Mossberg Patriot .308 caliber, a bolt-action firearm typically utilized for long-distance shooting.

"[T]here was a spent ammunition casing inactive successful the enclosure upon recovering the rifle," the probable origin connection reads. "There was a mag successful the firearm that did not person further bullets successful it."

Minutes later, the suspect was recovered and arrested 1 artifact distant from the country of the crime, according to instrumentality enforcement.

The victim's woman told constabulary she woke up to the dependable of a gunshot, according to the probable origin statement. After that, she said she walked into the hallway wherever Curtis was lasting with the rifle, which helium handed implicit to her. Then, she said, helium conscionable walked down the stairs.

"I already called 911 and I had to bash it," the slayer allegedly told the victim's woman arsenic helium walked away.

Eventually, she went downstairs herself. There, she described uncovering her husband, "face down successful the eating country by the table."

The suspect was primitively charged with 1 number each of first-degree execution and equipped transgression action, but those charges were reduced and dismissed, respectively, nether the presumption of his plea deal.