Teen pleads guilty in Baltimore County Circuit Court for 4 killings;

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Oct 28, 2008 by Danny Jacobs

Nicholas W. Browning, the Cockeysville teenager accused in the February killings of his parents and two younger brothers inside the family's home, pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of first-degree murder in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

Browning, 16, will face a maximum of two consecutive life sentences and two concurrent life sentences under terms of the plea agreement, which also included allowing for the possibility of parole and dropping the lesser handgun charges in the case. Browning's lawyers also asked that their client be referred to the Patuxent Institution in Jessup for psychiatric treatment.

Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. will sentence Browning on Dec. 2 for shooting John W. Browning, 45, Tamara, 44, Gregory, 14, and Benjamin, 11. John Browning was a longtime partner at Royston, Mueller, McLean & Reid LLP in Towson.

David B. Irwin, a spokesman for Nicholas Browning's paternal grandmother, maternal grandfather and maternal aunt and uncle, said the family agreed with the general terms of the plea agreement.

"They understand the need for punishment in a tragic situation," said Irwin, of Irwin Green & Dexter LLP in Towson. At the same time, he added, "They want Nick to be safe and get whatever treatment is available."

Lawyers involved in the case remain under a gag order until after sentencing.

Monday's hearing was supposed to be on a motion to suppress statements Browning made to police, the last scheduled day of preliminary hearings before his trial began December 1. Instead, Browning spent much of his morning in a jury room with his lawyers, William C. Brennan Jr. of Brennan Sullivan & McKenna LLP in Greenbelt and Joshua R. Treem of Schulman, Treem, Kaminkow & Gilden, P.A. in Baltimore.

Browning entered the courtroom around noon, wearing the same untucked blue polo shirt and khakis he wore in court in late July, when Bollinger ruled Browning be tried as an adult even though the killings occurred a week before his 16th birthday.

The teenager gave a faint smile to family members seated directly behind him Monday and spoke only in response to questions from Bollinger about the plea agreement.

In July, defense lawyers used the testimony of a forensic psychologist to portray Browning as a victim of his parents' physical and verbal abuse who killed while in a "trance-like state." But there was no mention of Browning's mental or emotional problems in the agreed statement of facts prosecutor S. Ann Brobst read into the record.

A shocking discovery

According to the statement, John and Tamara Browning dropped Nicholas Browning off at a friend's house around 6 p.m. February 1 to spend the night with friends. Nicholas Browning told his friends that later that night he would go home and return with a family SUV so they could drive around. (Browning did not have a license and believed the SUV would be a birthday present.) He called Gregory and asked him to leave the basement door unlocked so he could get inside and take the keys.

Nicholas Browning walked home and entered the unlocked basement early the morning of Feb. 2. He retrieved a 9mm pistol John Browning had been cleaning. Nicholas Browning also put on gloves his father used to clean the gun and grabbed a spare magazine.

Nicholas Browning walked upstairs and shot his father in the head as he slept on the sofa. He then went to his parents' bedroom on the second floor and shot his mother twice while she slept.

Browning moved down the hall to his brothers' bedroom. He shot Gregory once in the head. Benjamin began to stir, at which point Browning shot his youngest brother twice in the face.

"One of the bullets grazed Benjamin's left index finger as he put his hand over his face prior to being shot," the statement reads. "Benjamin died as a result of his wounds.

"The defendant turned and walked away from the room -- and the wallpaper border that was now splattered with the blood of his brothers."

Browning tried to portray the shootings as a burglary gone awry. He returned to his parents' room and scattered his mother's jewelry. Back in the basement, he moved two video game consoles on top of a pool table, as if the burglars were interrupted. He threw the gun and magazine into the bushes on his way back to his friends' house. Browning told his friends that lights were on inside his house and he fell asleep while waiting in the SUV, unable to get the keys.

Browning and his friends played video games and went to the mall Feb. 2. A friend noticed the SUV keys in Browning's coat pocket while at the mall. Browning periodically tried to call his parents, including at their Deep Creek Lake vacation home, and Gregory's cell phone.

"Each time he called, he told his family members he loved them and would see them soon," the statement reads.

A friend's father dropped Browning off at his home later that day. Browning came back outside and told the father something was wrong with John Browning. The friend's father went inside and saw John Browning's body. He asked Nicholas Browning to check on the rest of the family.