Four years ago on Halloween, Samuel August Sr ran a backhoe into his mother-in-law Louise Young's home, killing her and his 5-year-old son Samir.
And now, this alleged murderer has accepted responsibility for his actions as he pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
His attorney O.J. Elrington said that August figured he would save the court time.
O.J. Elrington, Attorney-At-Law
"Mr. August after having considered all the circumstances, all the facts, all of the evidence determined that it would be in his best interest to have an early guilty plea and so today he entered such. A guilty plea before the court."
"It's quite an extensive long facts but it is that I know if you were in court there was some question as to some particular facts to which Mr. August did not necessarily agree, thankfully we were able to have that summary of facts amended to reflect a summary of facts which would have been acceptable to Mr. August and so he was allowed to make his guilty plea after those agreed facts were accepted."
"He has expressed tremendous remorse, tremendous remorse for everything that happened. There were a peculiar set of circumstances but obviously having plead guilty you cannot necessarily rely on those things but yes, he from my interaction with him has expressed tremendous remorse and obviously with his early guilty plea is an indication that he is really and truly remorseful beyond."
And there is a lot to be remorseful for. On that night August who was a backhoe operator for the City Council and was working the night shift didn't return the backhoe to the compound where it belonged. Instead, he went to his mother-in-law's house where he rammed the backhoe into the house crushing one of its walls before running over the rubble and his victims a total of 3 times. He then set chase after the only survivor, a teenage girl who ran terrified from the scene and managed to be rescued by a neighbour.
And what triggered all of it? August was angry to find that maintenance payments had been deducted from his salary and awarded to his mother-in-law who had gained legal custody of his children after the death of their mother.
August's mitigation hearing is set for December, when the judge will also be expecting the results of a psychiatric evaluation. She will will deliver her sentence on Thursday, January 12, 2023.
