Nicholas Browning was fifteen years old living in Maryland when he would murder his parents and two siblings
According to court documents Nicholas Browning would stay at a friends home and then sneak out in the middle of the night. Nicholas would return to his own home and murder his parents, John and Tamara Browning, and his two younger brothers, Gregory, 13, and Benjamin, 11, as they slept in their beds
Nicholas Browning would return to his friends home and stay there for a couple of days before telling the friend what he had done
Nicholas Browning would be arrested, plead guilty to four counts of murder and would be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for twenty years
Nicholas Browning Current Information
| Full Name | DOC # | SID | Gender | DOB | Facility | Facility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NICHOLAS BROWNING | 355015 | 3225740 | Male | 02/1992 | JCI | Jessup Correctional Institution |
Nicholas Browning Case
The young man who murdered his parents and two younger brothers at their Cockeysville home when he was 15 appeared in a Baltimore County courtroom Friday, asking for a reduced sentence.
Derek Valcourt was in the courtroom and has more on the plea for mercy and the judge’s response.
Attorneys for the now 21-year-old were trying to argue that by slightly altering his sentence and allowing him to take part in a youth offender program, Nicholas Browning might have a shot of getting paroled someday.
But the judge wasn’t having it.
Browning is now serving two consecutive life sentences after confessing to the February 2008 murders of his parents, John and Tamara, and his brothers, 14-year-old Gregory and 11-year-old Benjamin, as the four slept in their Cockeysville beds.
Police: “Do you remember where you shot your dad on his body?”
Browning: “In the head.”
Police: “How about your mom?”
Browning: “In the head.”
Police: “Your brothers too then?”
Browning: “The head.”
Police: “Why did you do that?”
Browning: “I figured it would be quicker.”
In court Friday, Browning’s attorneys asked a judge to consider a reduced sentence, which would allow him to qualify for special programs at the Patuxent Institution and in turn perhaps one day even be eligible for parole.
That’s an argument prosecutors rebutted.
“This crime was so heinous that Nicholas Browning should never get out of jail,” said Robin Coffin, prosecutor.
Before the judge made his decision, Browning spoke briefly in court, saying “words can’t adequately describe what I did.”
He also said he would give his own life if he could just take it all back.
“For a 15-year-old boy to do something like that, there is obviously something wrong in the family,” said Michael Gaffney, Browning’s pen pal.
Gaffney became Browning’s pen pal and now visits him monthly in prison.
He was one of Browning’s few supporters inside the courtroom.
“I was really hoping that the court would consider all of the facts surrounding the case,” Gaffney said.
But the judge denied Browning’s request, sending him back to prison for life.
This was Browning’s last shot at getting a reduced sentence.
Prosecutors say Browning killed his parents because he didn’t want anyone telling him what to do and that he killed his brothers so he wouldn’t have to share an inheritance.
No Sentence Reduction For Cockeysville Man Who Murdered His Entire Family At Age 15 – CBS Baltimore
Nicholas Browning News
An honor student and former Boy Scout pleaded guilty Monday to fatally shooting his sleeping family, then going back to a friend’s house to play video games.
Nicholas Browning, 16, of Cockeysville pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the February slayings of John W. Browning, 45; Tamara, 44; Gregory, 14, and Benjamin, 11. In exchange for his plea, he will serve at least two decades in prison but will not serve life without parole.
The killings stunned the upscale Baltimore suburb where the family lived. The family was active in a local church and widely respected in the community, and nearly 1,300 people attended a funeral service for them.
Though authorities painted the most complete picture yet in court Monday of how the chilling crime happened, Browning’s motive remains a mystery. The teen cried as prosecutors described the killings, accepting a tissue from a sheriff’s deputy, but said little else.
Used gun owned by father
According to a statement of the crime read in court, Browning asked his brother, Gregory, to leave the basement door unlocked, then walked home from a friend’s house after midnight on Saturday, Feb. 2. In the basement, he put on a pair of gloves and picked up a handgun belonging to his father and a spare magazine.
His father was asleep on a sofa on the first floor. Nicholas shot him in the head, then waited for the rest of his family to come downstairs.
When they failed to stir, he went to his mother’s bedroom and shot her twice as she slept, prosecutors said. Then he moved on to his brothers’ bedroom. He shot Gregory once in the head. At that point, Benjamin began to stir. Benjamin lifted his hand to shield himself, and Browning shot his youngest brother twice in the face. One bullet grazed the boy’s left index finger.
After the slayings, Browning returned to his friend’s house, played video games and pretended nothing had happened. The following day, Browning and his friends went to a shopping mall, and he placed several calls to his family, leaving them messages to say he loved them and would see them soon. A friend’s father drove him home, and Browning emerged from the house to say something was wrong with his father. The friend’s father saw John Browning’s body and called police.
Browning later confessed to the slayings and told police where they could find the murder weapon.
Psychiatric testimony
Other than noting that the teen had been arguing with his father, police and prosecutors have not detailed a motive. Dr. Neil H. Blumberg, a forensic psychiatrist for the defense, testified at an earlier hearing that Browning was physically and verbally abused by his parents and thought he could do nothing to please them. However, state psychiatrists have said they do not believe he was mentally ill.
Blumberg said Nicholas Browning had disruptions in consciousness, memory and perception on the night of the killings and that Browning indicated he was in “a trancelike state.” The psychiatrist also testified that relatives and friends told him they had seen Nicholas’ parents abuse him. He said the family had a history of alcoholism and that John, Tamara and Nicholas abused alcohol.
Browning was a week shy of his 16th birthday at the time of the slayings, too young under state law to face the death penalty. When he is sentenced Dec. 2, he faces two consecutive life terms. Under state parole guidelines, he could become eligible for parole in 23 years if he is a model inmate — though state officials say murderers are rarely granted parole at their first hearing.
Defense lawyers asked that Nicholas Browning serve his sentence at Patuxent Institution in Jessup, a facility that provides psychiatric treatment.
Browning’s grandmother, Margaret Browning, was in the courtroom Monday morning as attorneys hammered out the deal but was not present when her grandson entered the plea. Other relatives did not speak to reporters as they left court. Attorneys also did not comment, and the judge kept a gag order in the case intact until sentencing