EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - A 36-year-old man was convicted Wednesday of two counts of aggravated murder in the beating deaths of his father and the father’s domestic partner.
Lane County Circuit Court jurors deliberated for about seven hours over two days before returning their verdict against Johan Gillette, the Register-Guard reported (https://is.gd/IuG7xN ).
Gillette was accused of fatally injuring James Gillette, 73, and Anne McLucas, 71, at their Eugene-area home on Sept. 7, 2012. Both died of multiple crushing blows to the head.
Prosecutors said the younger man flew into a rage over his father’s plan to evict Gillette and his girlfriend from a trailer on the older man’s property.
The victims were found in their blood-soaked bedroom. McLucas was mortally injured but still alive; she died the next day at a hospital.
Jurors also convicted Gillette of first-degree animal abuse, a misdemeanor, for clubbing the family’s Jack Russell terrier. The dog subsequently had to be euthanized.
Gillette contended he acted in self-defense, saying his father had threatened to kill him and his girlfriend and was reaching for a gun in a waist holster, and that McLucas jumped the younger man from behind.
Aggravated murder is the only Oregon charge that carries a possible death sentence. The same jury will reconvene in a sentencing hearing, starting March 26, to decide whether Johan Gillette should be put to death.
If the jury votes against the death penalty, Gillette will likely be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. He could be sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole after 30 years if at least 10 jurors believe there is sufficient mitigating evidence to support the lesser sentence.
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Information from: The Register-Guard, https://www.registerguard.com
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