Ethan Orton gets life for killing parents
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Ethan Orton at his sentencing hearing for the murders of his parents(YouTube screenshots)

Ethan Orton at his sentencing hearing for the murders of his parents (YouTube screenshots)

A 19-year-old man in Iowa will spend at least half of a century behind bars for stabbing both of parents with a bowie knife — killing his father — and then using an axe to his finish off his mother when he realized she had survived the initial stabbing.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill on Monday ordered Ethan Orton to serve a sentence of life in prison with the chance for parole after 50 years, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.

Judge Thornhill technically sentenced Orton to two life sentences — one for each of his parents — but chose to have the teen serve them concurrently.

Orton pleaded guilty in February to two counts of first-degree murder in the gruesome 2021 slayings of his parents, Misty Scott-Slade and Casey Orton. While Iowa state law typically requires first-degree murder convictions be accompanied by mandatory sentences of life in prison without the possibility for parole, Orton was a juvenile — just five months away from his 18th birthday — at the time of the crime.

Following a precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012, Iowa’s highest court in 2016 outlawed sentences of life without parole for juveniles.

Monday’s sentencing hearing

According to a report from The Gazette, Orton’s defense attorney sought a life sentence in prison with the possibility for parole in 10 years. He argued that Orton’s parents emotionally abused him for years and planned to cut ties with him when he turned 18.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, reportedly pointed out that Orton had never been diagnosed with any kind of mental illness and emphasized that the “heinous” attack on his parents was premeditated and showed a rational thought process as he laid out his weapons in advance and waited for them to fall asleep before the slayings.

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