Nicholas Browning smiled meekly to family members before pleading guilty Monday to the first-degree murders of his parents and two younger brothers in their upscale Cockeysville home.
Browning, 16, admitted to killing his father, John Browning, 45; mother, Tamara Browning, 44; and brothers Gregory, 14, and Benjamin, 11, on Feb. 2 — shooting them one by one as they slept.
The Dulaney High student looked somber through the short hearing.
The guilty plea was an about-face for Browning’s defense team, which had previously sought to have him tried as a juvenile.
Prosecutors said the guilty plea means they will no longer seek life without the possibility of parole. They are now asking the judge to impose two life sentences — meaning Browning will be eligible for parole in no less than 30 years.
Browning wept as Brobst read aloud an agreed-upon statement of facts that detailed the methodical nature of the killings.
Staying the night at a friend’s house, Browning returned home to take his father’s car out joyriding, Brobst said.
“John Browning, a respected Towson attorney, was asleep on the sofa in the family room, wearing jeans and casual brown shoes. He was covered with a throw blanket. The defendant raised the pistol and shot his father in the head, killing him,” Brobst said. “The defendant … then climbed the stairs to the second floor. He entered his parents’ bedroom and found his mother asleep. He raised the pistol again and shot his mother twice while she lay in her bed.”
Browning then walked into the bedroom shared by his younger brothers, the prosecutor said.
He first shot his 14-year-old brother once in the head and then turned to the youngest brother, 11, shooting him twice in the face, Brobst said.
Browning then attempted to make the scene look like a burglary, prosecutors said.
The next day, as police were investigating the crime scene, teenagers, invited by Browning for a party, began showing up at the house.
A psychiatrist hired by defense attorneys had previously testified that Browning’s parents were verbally abusive and that the teen was in a “trance like state” during the killings.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 2.
