How Could You? Hall of Shame-Bradford and Andra Sachs case-Adult Deaths and Russian Adoptee Paralyzed UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From San Juan Capistrano, California, Bradford Sachs,57,  and Andra Sachs,54,  were “found murdered inside their hilltop mansion in San Juan Capistrano.

Bradford Hans Sachs, 57, and Andra Resa Sachs, 54, were found in bed with several gunshot wounds inside their home in the 32000 block of Peppertree Bend, a source told CBS2/KCAL9’s Michele Gile. The source also reported that the couple’s 8-year-old son ,[Landon,]– one of five children – was also shot and paralyzed as a result.

The duo’s two teenage daughters were also home at the time of the incident.

The Sachses were divorced, but residing together at the time of their death, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials.

“With any investigation, specifically with a homicide investigation, we’re going to look at all aspects of their life and attempt to determine if there is any information that will lead us to a suspect,” Lt. Jeff Hallock said. “The incident is isolated to the residence here. We are not in a position to say that they were targeted. We can’t really say either way.”

Homicide detectives were going over a list of names of people who may have been disgruntled with the Sachses, who owned several pieces of property in San Juan Capistrano and elsewhere in Orange County, and were working to determine who they had business dealings with, Gile reports.

Business owners like Bryce Baum said there were some issues throughout the time he has leased commercial space in San Juan Capistrano from the Sachses.

“I just know that we were here for about a year and a half and they’ve changed business names several times,” Baum said. “And I couldn’t even tell you how people have come around looking for them, you know, due to whatever business dealings or money and something like that. But you could tell people were trying to get into contact with them for a while.”

Bryce Baum’s father, Ken, said the couple told him he had to write his check to a different company name every month.

“It was very odd because after we signed the lease, we gave them a check. They walked us outside, my son and I, and they said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t tell anybody you know us, you don’t know our names, you don’t know we’re here, we don’t exist.’ And I was kinda puzzled. And he said, ‘The reason why is we own a lot of property and people are always trying to get us for something,’” he said.

On RipoffReport.com, a number of tenants and even alleged family members have filed complaints, warning others not to rent from the duo.

One person wrote, “I feel violated and used.” Another said, “She may think she has gotten away with my money… but I will be seeing her behind bars.”

Neighbors, however, described the Sachses as “really nice people.”

“They walk their dogs with the kids,” Patty Bonin said.”

Questionable Business Dealings Could Be Motive In OC Double Murder[CBS Los Angeles 2/10/14 ]

“In 2012 email correspondence with Patch, she called herself Andie. She said she was divorced in 2002.[? But her son is 8 years old?]

The Sachs faced business challenges, starting several companies, including Flashcom Inc.—a now-defunct provider of high-speed Internet service, and also defunct Jungle Motors, which aimed to convert cars running on gasoline to hybrids or electric vehicles.

In 2011, the state listed Andra on a list of people who owed significant amount of taxes, in her case, $1.15 million.

By 2012, her name was removed from that list.

“The amount due is highly in dispute and contested,” she told Patch two years ago.  She also said she had nothing to do with Jungle Motors, despite her name appearing on company press releases.

Anyone with information at the murders is asked to call the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at (714) 647-7044. Anonymous tips may also be submitted to Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS (855-847-6227) or at occrimestoppers.org.”

San Juan Capistrano Murder Victims Identified[Laguna Niguel Dana Point Patch February 10, 2014by Penny Arévalo]

“Bradford and Andra Sachs were both shot with the same weapon. At this point it does sound like there was one gunman who entered their home. Their son was not shot by mistake according to police — he was “targeted.”  The two teen girls who were home at the time were not harmed. The suspect was able to flee the area without getting caught and, as of now, it’s unclear whether or not police have any idea who the suspect might be.

“The Sachs were involved with several small businesses, including DSL startup Flashcom and electric car-conversion company Plug In Solutions. Evidently, the couple also owned a glut of property, as there are a dozen or so angry tenants who have given them bad reviews on rip-off sites,” reports NBC Los Angeles.

As previously reported, Bradford and Andra Sachs may have been into some “funny business” and bad dealings — and this may have lead to the suspect(s).

“One of the mystifying aspects of the case is how the killer got in and out of the home — the more than 9,000-square-foot mansion is embedded in a hill near a cul-de-sac and has guard dogs” ”

Bradford Andra Sachs update: 8-year-old boy ‘targeted’ in murder plot[The Examiner 2/12/14 by Effie Orfanides]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “According to the OC Register on Feb. 14, the Sachs’ were a powerful couple with their hands in dozens of business ventures. It was Andra Sachs that was considered the powerhouse behind their business dealings.

Bradford Sachs was by her side through their business dealings, but it was Andra at the helm, according to the people who knew the couple. The couple went through a divorce in 1998, which was described as a “bitter battle,” but Andra herself had told people close to her that the divorce was for financial reasons only. The couple stayed together, living in the same house and working together even though they were divorced. They were described as being “soul mates” by close friends.

One of the couple’s main source of income in the past was from Flashcom, which is an internet service provider. Together the couple owned the biggest share of the stocks. Around the time that the stocks were rumored to go public, Andra Sachs was removed from the board of directors. She collected $9 million cashing in her stocks from that company.

The reason that Andra was removed from this position was stated in the documents in a lawsuit that followed. The documents said:

“(Andra Sachs) could no longer be tolerated because it was hindering relations with customers, strategic partners, and vendors.”

There wasn’t a shortage of people who were willing to describe the late Andra Sachs as tough to deal with in a business venue. After being ousted from the board, she tried to have the company evicted from the property that they were housed in.

During the couple’s divorce the judge was having a tough time getting both Bradford and Andra’s cooperation and he hired a company to collect property documents, rent documents and bills from their properties. This was a way to straighten out their finances so they could continue with the divorce.

Neither of the two were willing to provide that information to the court or the company, who failed at getting the information wanted by the judge, but the divorce was granted.

The real estate broker who sold them the 3.8 million dollar home that they lived in with their five children and the home they would eventually be killed in, said that Andra told him the divorce as a “financial decision” for “liability sake.”

The real estate broker, Monte Burghardt, was also a friend and he was the one to describe the couple as “soul mates.” They had three biological children of their own and adopted two children.

Burghardt was the person to describe Andra Sachs as the driving force behind business and he also added that Bradford was “a musician at heart.” He also said that with Andra Sachs:

Many of the companies that the couple had business dealings with found themselves in litigation frequently over the years. Tenants of their business and residential rentals named Andra as a woman who was very tough to deal with. The couple was also referred to as “the epitome of slum lords” by Justin Myers, 30, whose mother rented property from the Sachs.

The Sachs owned property in several states and also in Mexico. In 2011 Andra Sachs was on the list of California’s top delinquent taxpayers. She owed more than $1.1 million. Neither of the Sachs showed up on that list the following year, suggesting either the tax debt was unfounded or finally paid for the year 2011.

It was last Sunday when the Orange County Police received a call from inside the Sachs’ home reporting a shooting. When they arrived at the San Juan of Capistrano neighborhood home of Bradford and Andra Sachs, they found the couple shot to death.

They also found their eight-year-old son shot, but still alive. He remains in the hospital today being treated for paralysis. The Sachs’ two teenage daughters were home at the time of the shootings, but both were unharmed. Their two older children were away at college, so they weren’t at home.

The mystery as to who the killer or killers were that did this to the Sachs’ is still unsolved today. There was no forced entry into the house. The killer or killers got by the guard dogs and were somehow able to gain access to a home that had a security code that needed to be punched into a key pad for entry.

Because of the checkered business dealings of the Sachs, the police are leaving no stone unturned and checking with recent and past business dealings of the couple.

Police do not believe that the son was shot accidentally. They believe he was a target when he was hit, but that is as far as they went with that information. Did he try and help his parents and the killer shot him? Why weren’t the teenage girls harmed? Did they hide when they heard the gun shots? The home is a sprawling mansion so that is one possible scenario as to why the girls made it out of the attack unharmed. Police do not know if the couple was a target or a random attack, although at a press conference they did tell the neighbors that

Police did not divulge any information that they were able to get from the kids who were at home at the time of the shooting. It is not known if the kids were able to give them anything useful. The authorities have no motive or no suspects on the shooting deaths of the Sachs today, a week after this horrific crime. The Sachs’ children are with relatives today, according to latest reports. Their youngest child, who was shot in the attack, is still in the hospital.”

Bradford and Andra Sachs death: Andra rubbed some the wrong way in business life[Examiner 2/16/14 by Roz Zurko]

Update 2:“The 19-year-old son of a married couple found shot dead in their luxury Southern California home last month has been arrested and charged with his parents’ murders.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said Friday that Ashton Colby Sachs was booked for investigation of double homicide and is being held without bail.

Authorities say Sachs is a college student in Washington state and lives in the Seattle area.

Bradford and Andra Sachs were found shot to death February 9 inside their nearly 9,000-square-foot San Juan Capistrano mansion valued at $3.7million. Their 8-year-old adopted son was also shot but survived.

Authorities found no signs of a break in. They have yet to identify a motive.

The couple, who had five children, filed for divorce more than a decade ago but continued to live and run several profitable ventures together.

The bodies of Bradford Sachs, 57, and Andra Sachs, 54, were found February 9 in the bedroom of their sprawling Pepperdine Bend home in Orange County home following the 2am shooting.

Following his arrest in San Diego Thursday, Ashton Sachs was described by police as a ‘lone suspect’ in the killings.

Orange County Register reported the Ashton Sachs had no previous run-ins with the law.

Ashton Sachs had been attending college in Washington state and lived in Seattle since 2013. His older brother, Myles, was away at school at the time of the murders, but their two teenage sisters and the eight-year-old brother were home.

College student son, 19, arrested for shooting his parents dead in their $3.7m mansion and leaving his adopted brother, eight, paralyzed[Daily Mail 3/8/14]

Update 3: “His parents were just the start.

A California teen who shot and killed his mom and dad as they slept in their multimillion-dollar mansion last month intended to kill every family member in the house, including his 8-year-old brother, prosecutors said.

Ashton Sachs, 19, was arrested Thursday after a month-long investigation into the deaths of Bradford Sachs, 57, and Andra Sachs, 54, who were found fatally shot in the bedroom of their ritzy home in San Juan Capistrano, a city between Los Angeles and San Diego.

During the attack, Sachs also opened fire on his 17-year-old sister and 8-year-old brother, missing the girl but hitting the little boy.

The boy is now paralyzed, authorities said.

Teen accused of killing parents in California mansion planned attack, wanted to kill siblings: prosecutor [NY Daily News 3/11/14 by Philip Caulfield ]

Update 4:”Andra and Brad Sachs had two boys, oldest son Myles and Ashton, and two girls, oldest daughter Sabrina and Alexis. Sabrina drowned in the family swimming pool in Huntington Beach during the spring of 1999.

Brad Sachs sought a divorce in November 1999, accusing Andra of having psychological problems that made her impossible to live with. He wrote in court papers that he decided to move out of the family home to temper Andra’s raging. She wrote in her own court papers tied to the divorce that no one in the family ever received the counseling they needed to deal with Sabrina’s death.

Andra accused Brad of introducing his new girlfriend to the children soon after he moved out. She also referenced in court papers that Myles, then around 7, had seen his father and the girlfriend having sex.

On March 3, 2000, Newport Beach police arrested Brad Sachs on suspicion of domestic violence. Andra accused him of backing his car into hers and throwing her to the ground during a custody exchange of their three children. She claims she was knocked out, and later received a restraining order.

But the charge was later dismissed, and during the same year their divorce would become final the couple reconciled and moved back in together. They moved from Huntington Beach to a mansion in Laguna Beach and, finally, up there on Peppertree Bend, where neighbors knew them as “a loving couple.”

Andra Sachs often traveled to Russia, where she would go on to adopt a brother and sister, Landon and Lana. All the Sachs were known as “the perfect family,” which explains why neighbors were so shocked over the senseless violence–so shocked that sheriff’s deputies had to reassure the surrounding community that they were not in danger, that this was an isolated incident.

The couple were entrepreneurs who started and lost many businesses. They also owned properties in Nevada, Florida, Mexico as well as commercial space near their Orange County home. Some tenants who rented space from the Sachs said they were very much disliked.

“Shocked, my stomach sank, and then I thought, ‘I’m not surprised,'” tenant Ken Baum said at the time to KCBS/2, explaining things went sour for him as soon as he signed the contract to rent from the Sachs.

“Shady, underhanded, we don’t like it, move, sue me, we don’t care,” Baum added. “And they also told us as soon we moved in, don’t tell anybody we were here, don’t tell anybody you know us, don’t tell them our name, don’t tell them this is our business next door to you, we don’t want to be known.”

The Sachs were reportedly known for frequently changing the names of their businesses.

Fausto Polanco posted a Ripoff Report Dec. 10, 2012, that described a residential property rental dispute he had with his landlord, Andra Sachs. He claimed at the time to have a $7,873.88 court judgment against Sachs “(a.k.a. Queen Andra, Queen of the Jungle, Queen of Green, Lanaland, LLC, and Lanalandon, LLC)” but did not get paid.”

So many who dealt professionally with the Sachs were so down on the couple that homicide investigators initially focused on current and former business associates as possible suspects.

 

But there was no sign of forced entry at the Sachs home that fateful night. That’s probably what caused investigators to track the movements of those who could easily enter and leave the premises.

Ashton Sachs attended Laguna Beach High School but graduated from Dana Hills High in Dana Point. He’d later enroll at Saddleback College. His Facebook profile indicates he once worked for Pageant of the Masters but more recently was a “repairtech” at Play N Trade Video Games. He was a League of Legends and World of Warcraft junkie who had no criminal record, only speeding tickets.

Lisa Bohlken, a real estate agent who works out of the Keller Williams Coronado office, knew Brad, Andra and Ashton Sachs from having helped the family buy a home on that idyllic San Diego County island. She never met Myles, but talked with him often on the phone.

That is because, before the murders, Ashton and Myles had moved to the Seattle area to attend college. The brothers registered several companies for their mother while up there, and investigators initially assumed that’s where both were at the time of the tragedy, in which an apparent intruder shot and killed the Sachs, shot and paralyzed 8-year-old Landon and fired at but missed Alexis, 17. Lana, 15, was not shot at.

Prosecutors now accuse Ashton of having fled to Seattle after the shootings. Someone up there told the Register about trying to cheer up Ashton, but he did not seem very distraught about the killings.

Bohlken told Fox 5 San Diego that she had previously arranged through a phone call with Myles to get a key to the Coronado home to their contractor.

After the deaths of their parents, Myles and Ashton arranged to relocate their brother and sisters to the three-bedroom Coronado Cays home. Bohlken assumed at the time they were just following through on their mother’s wishes.

“My heart goes out to the family and it’s really hard to even wrap your mind around what happened,” said Bohlken.

Myles and Ashton had filed a joint petition seeking guardianship of their siblings–before Ashton’s March 6 arrest at the Coronado home. Deputies say they have recovered the murder weapon. Ashton has since been removed as a guardian.

 

He was indicted Monday by the Orange County Grand Jury on two felony counts of special circumstances murder for multiple murders, two felony counts of attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation, and sentencing enhancements for the personal use of a firearm causing death, personal use of a firearm causing bodily injury, and causing paralysis.

The Orange County District Attorney’s office sought the indictment to speed-up court proceedings; with an indictment there is no need for a preliminary hearing. Ashton Colby Sachs, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment at 9 a.m. in Santa Ana.

The motive? We still do not know.

UPDATE, JUNE 19, 5:45 P.M.: Ashton Sachs’ arraignment was rescheduled for July 21 today.”

 

Ashton Colby Sachs’ Arraignment Delayed on Indictment Alleging Murder of Parents: Update[Oc Weekly 6/19/14 by Matt Coker]

“A 19-year-old college dropout told authorities he paced outside his parents’ bedroom before deciding with a rush that they had to die for his messed-up life, according to grand jury testimony released Tuesday.

Ashton Sachs had bought a semiautomatic rifle a few weeks before, the testimony continued, and he researched legal definitions of murder. After days without sleep, he drove 18 hours from his condo in Seattle to his family’s San Juan Capistrano home.

The testimony offered for the first time an account and possible motive in the fatal shootings of Bradford Sachs, 57, and Andra Sachs, 54, in the early hours of Feb. 9. Their 8-year-old son was also shot, leaving the boy paralyzed. In all, investigators recovered 24 cartridges from the gated home in the… an exclusive area of San Juan Capistrano.

Weeks later, Ashton Sachs was arrested on suspicion of his parents’ murders as well as the attempted murder of his little brother and one of his sisters. In an interview at Orange County Sheriff’s Department Headquarters, he told deputies he didn’t have a specific reason for the killings, just a lifetime of problems, lead investigator Justin Montano testified.

His parents didn’t trust him, Sachs told deputies, and they favored his other siblings, Montano said. They hadn’t taken his suicide attempt a year earlier seriously, he said, and he blamed them for the horrible way he felt. Text messages recovered from Sachs’ phone and quoted in the testimony include an exchange between him and his mother three days before the shooting, his father’s birthday.

“You forgot his birthday. Not nice,” Andra Sachs wrote.

“I forgot his birthday just as much as he forgot he has a son,” Ashton replied.

“Wow, no he didn’t. He loves you very much,” his mother said.

Ashton told deputies he had bought a rifle, thinking he would kill himself, according to the testimony. After his decision to kill his parents first, he stayed up for four or five days straight, he told the deputies. Internet history on his phone showed Wikipedia articles on felony murder, attempted murder, the insanity defense and parole, an investigator testified.

After the long drive from Seattle, he parked outside his parents’ shop in San Juan Capistrano and sat in his car, a 2005 white Prius, for a few hours. Then, around 1:30 a.m., he drove to his family home and walked in through the unlocked front door.

Once inside, he wandered around upstairs for 10 or 15 minutes, he told deputies. Finally, he decided he had to act. He felt a rush; it was twisted, he told the deputies, according to Montano’s testimony. He killed his parents first, he said, according to the testimony. As he walked past his little brother’s room, he shot at the boy, leaving bullet holes in the bunk bed, investigators said. He also opened the door to his sister’s room and shot once, he told deputies.

His sister told the grand jury the noise woke her, but she didn’t see her attacker. She didn’t get out of bed until she heard her younger brother crying for help upstairs. He couldn’t feel his legs, he told her from the floor outside their parents’ room. After she saw her parents, she ran to wake up her sister, who then called 911.

Meanwhile, Ashton Sachs dropped off his car at his parents’ shop, Montano testified. He made arrangements with an auto transport company to have his car shipped back to Seattle. A taxi took him to John Wayne Airport; he had bought a plane ticket on the drive down from Washington.

Back home in Washington, Sachs was officially notified of his parents’ deaths around noon.

With no sign of a break-in, the crime left investigators puzzled. In one early interview, Sachs suggested several people who had business dealings with his parents as possible suspects.

The break in the case, Montano told the grand jury, came after authorities received phone records from Ashton Sachs, which had been requested as a standard part of the investigation. The teen had told deputies he was home in Washington at the time of the killings. Based on the phone records, it appeared he was lying, Montano said.

Authorities would later find his car in the yard of the auto shipping company, the testimony said. Inside the trunk, a Seattle police sergeant found the rifle. Airline records and video also placed Sachs in Orange County, flying out of John Wayne Airport the day his parents were killed.

Confronted with the evidence after his arrest, Sachs told deputies that he had felt useless, Montano testified. He had stopped going to school, his life was a mess and he blamed his parents.

Deputies asked him if he knew what he was doing was wrong, according to the testimony.

It was, Sachs replied, according to Montano’s testimony. He expected he would sit in a mental institution for a long time, or get the death penalty.

Sachs has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges. He is scheduled to be arraigned later this month on the criminal indictment that the grand jury issued”

Capistrano killings: Deputy says son described shooting parents[OC Register 7/9/14 by Claudia Korner]

Update 5: “A young man who shot dead his parents, left his young brother paralyzed and almost killed his sister acted shocked and hysterical in the days after the incident.

Ashton Sachs, 19, is charged with murdering his parents, Brad and Andra, as they slept the night of February 9, 2013, then shooting his younger brother Landon, 8, leaving the young boy paralyzed and finally trying to kill his younger sister Lana, 15, who was left unharmed when the bullet missed her as she lay in bed.

Now, friends of the family are opening up about the incident in an interview with People, revealing that Ashton spent every day after the incident at his brother’s bedside and was in a complete state of shock that someone would murder his parents.

 

He would cry and say, “Landon is 8 years old and he doesn’t have a dad,”‘ said Sarah Verbeek, a former girlfriend.

‘He’d say, “I can’t believe somebody killed my parents.”‘

 

Ruth Briscoe, one of Andra’s childhood friends, said that the first time she saw the young man after the tragedy; ‘He collapsed on me crying. It was pretty powerful.’

Ashton, who had no previous run-ins with the law, was arrested in March 2014 after police determined he was the ‘lone suspect’ in the murder.

The found a semi-automatic in his car and phone records placed him in the area around the time.

What still remains a mystery however is why he did it, especially to those who knew the young man.

‘I don’t have a reason why. Just a lot of problems,’ Ashton initially told authorities.

‘He never showed any signs of aggression or threatened to hurt someone,’ said Verbeek.

‘He wasn’t that kid seen on TV crime documentaries that secludes himself and doesn’t talk to anyone. He never spoke bad about his family. He never talked about guns. Nothing.’

In fact, many seem to think that only thing that is off-putting is how he behaved in the days after the incident.

‘He talked about how he loved his parents,’ said Andra’s sister Lesley Summers.

”He said he’d had a dream that they weren’t dead, and they drove up and Andra said, “Bullets can’t kill us.”‘

Conor Ward, a friend, said; ‘I think of my friend I loved, and I can’t see the kid who murdered his parents.’

Ashton drove 18 hours straight from Seattle to his family’s $2.5million luxury home on February 9, 2013, and said he spent 15 minutes pacing outside his parents’ bedroom deciding what to do before killing them.

He then shot his adopted brother and sister, just swinging open their doors and firing as they lay in bed.

Then, two weeks after the shooting, he and his brother Myles  filed for custody of those two children.

Now he is behind bars at the Central Men’s Jail in Orange County, telling visitors that he wants to finish college and that be misses his family.

‘I just don’t get it,’ said family friend Stephanie Garber.Andra’s other sister.”

‘I can’t believe someone shot my parents’: How son who killed his mom and dad, and left his eight-year-old brother paralyzed, spent the days after the attack in denial

[Daily Mail 3/7/15 by Chris Spargo]

Update 6:“Ashton Sachs, 22, was ordered on Friday to spend the rest of his life in jail after he last month pleaded guilty to the murder of his parents and attempted murder of two of his siblings, CBS News reports. When Sachs was originally charged with Andra and Brad Sachs’s highly publicized deaths in 2014, he maintained his innocence for years; his recent plea change marked another shocking twist in an already-shocking case.

Andra and Brad Sachs were real estate and technology moguls who lived in a multi-million-dollar San Juan Capistrano, California, home with their three other children Landon, 8, Lana, 9, and Alexis, 17. Ashton, who was 19 at the time, and his older brother Myles, now 23, were both living in Washington to attend college and manage one of their parents’ properties there.

Originally, both Myles and Sachs provided alibis – and a list of angry former business partners who might’ve had motive to commit the crime – for the night of February 9, 2014, but soon after the murders, authorities found a military-style assault rifle in the trunk of Sachs’s car, leading them to name Sachs as the main suspect in the case. They eventually determined he’d driven 18 hours through the night to his parents’ home, snuck into the house wearing a beanie and gloves at 2 a.m., and shot them each at least 10 times in the face and body. Some of the shots were taken at point-blank range, the OC Register reports.

After shooting his parents, Sachs moved on to his siblings. He did not shoot at Lana, who was on a different floor, but he shot at Alexis, who remained unharmed because he missed. He shot Landon in the spine – the boy is now permanently paralyzed. Sachs was back at his home in Washington by the time he and Myles got the noon call that their parents had been killed.

Days later, Sachs spoke “beautifully” at the funeral, according to CBS, saying “I really do believe that both their energy is alive and they will continue to guide me throughout life. As a kid I just always thought ‘I have pretty awesome parents,’ I don’t know how or why to sum up how they were perfect parents other than that everything they did was always for their children.” When he was arrested, he countered all the things he’d said during the eulogy, telling investigators he was angry at his parents for not taking a previous suicide attempt of his seriously and because he believed he was their least favorite child. At that time, he was still maintaining his innocence.

It’s unclear what happened last month that prompted Sachs to change his mind, but he called an unexpected hearing in which he changed his plea to guilty to his charges of special-circumstances murder and attempted murder. When asked by the judge if he understood the rights he was giving up and that he would never be released from prison, Sachs responded: “Yes, I do.”

According to the OC Register, pleading guilty to special-circumstances murder mandates life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sachs was sentenced to four lifetimes in jail (two of which are without the possibility of parole) and an additional 100 years for the use of his firearm. He has since shown little emotion (prosecutors alleged in court he is a sociopath) or offered any more explanation as to why he committed the crimes.

48 Hours reports none of Sachs’s siblings attended the sentencing, but his aunt on his father’s side Lisa McGowan did and she spoke to the courtroom and addressed Sachs directly: “I am told by friends and family to forgive you … Here’s my choice: I can’t forgive you.””

Ashton Sachs Convicted of Parents’ Murders[Yahoo 10/19/16 by Tess Koman]