Oregon 16-year-old Kills Foster Mother, Foster Sister and Biological Sister UPDATED now Bittersweet Justice

They say he is a foster child, but he has the same name as the foster mother. Perhaps this was a kinship placement.

“A 16-year-old boy shot and killed his foster mother and two siblings at a home in southwest Oregon, authorities said Wednesday.

The boy surrendered to deputies without incident Tuesday night and was booked into a juvenile detention facility on charges of aggravated murder. He was being held without bail.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and relatives of the teenager did not return phone messages from The Associated Press, but court papers filed Wednesday provide some details about what happened at the home in Lookingglass, an unincorporated community southwest of Roseburg.

Robert Adams, the boy’s foster father, called emergency dispatchers shortly before 9 p.m. to report that his foster son killed his family. When deputies arrived, the boy told them the gun was inside the house, Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Merrifield wrote in a probable cause affidavit.

When investigators entered the house, they found three bodies. Robert Adams identified them to police as his wife, Donya Adams, 55; daughter, Amory Adams, 26; and foster daughter, 10-year-old Payshience “Tia” Adams.

A Facebook page that belongs to an Amory Adams of Lookingglass indicates she studied at Umpqua Community College, the same school where a gunman shot 10 people dead and injured nine others in 2015.

Court records indicate Payshience Adams is the suspect’s sister.

Robert Adams told investigators he left home at 6:30 p.m. and returned a little more than two hours later to find his foster son outside the home, Merrifield said. The boy told him to call police and not go inside the house.

Adams entered the house and found a gun on his bed and his deceased family.

Merrifield said the boy told investigators he shot his relatives multiple times with a handgun, and then waited for his foster father to return. The court documents don’t mention a possible motive for the attack.

A statement from Douglas County authorities said no additional information would be released Wednesday.”

Oregon boy charged in killings of foster mother, 2 others

[Fox News 11/8/17 by Steven DuBois]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “The teenager accused of murdering his foster family in the Roseburg area has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of aggravated murder.

Kevin Adams, 16, was arraigned on additional charges from a grand jury on Thursday. A trial has been scheduled for Feb. 5, 2019.

At the arraignment the judge also cleared up what was previously set to be the maximum penalty, the death sentence. She said that was unconstitutional for someone his age, and that the maximum penalty would actually be a true life sentence without the chance of parole.

Police said he shot and killed his foster mother Donya Adams, her daughter Amory Adams and his younger sister Payshience Adams in their home near Lookingglass in November 2017.

According to court documents, his foster father, Robert Adams, was out of the home at the time of the muders, and when he arrived home, Kevin admitted to killing them.

A grand jury filed additional murder counts due to the circumstances of the alleged crimes.

Adams is being charged as an adult. He is expected back in court in April for a status check hearing.”

Roseburg teen pleads not guilty to murdering foster family

[Kezi 2/1/18 by Stephanie Villiers]

Update 2: “The state of Oregon has agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle claims that the Department of Human Services was partly at fault for the November 2017 gunshot deaths of two women shot by a teenage foster child.

The state’s settlement with the family of Donya Adams and her adult daughter Amory Adams was disclosed Nov. 22 in court filings. Police have said Donya Adams’ 16-year-old foster son shot and killed her and her daughter, as well as his 10-year-old biological sister who was being fostered by the same family.

State lawyers ultimately agreed to pay $750,000 to each woman’s estate and $200,000 to Donya Adams’ husband, Robert Adams, who discovered his relatives’ bodies in their Roseburg home. The settlement was reached after nine months of negotiations, before a lawsuit was ever filed.

The agreement means the family won’t have to relive the tragedy during lengthy court proceedings, wrote their attorney, David Kramer, in court filings.

“Mr. Adams’ family has undergone unimaginable loss that no settlement could ease,” Kramer said Thursday. “As his family continues to grieve, he is grateful for the support of his remaining family, friends and church members, and he appreciates that media is respecting his family’s privacy.”

Department of Human Services spokesman Jake Sunderland said no one at his agency had any comments about the settlement.

It is the second settlement to end wrongful death claims against DHS this year. In August, a judge signed off on a $1.1 million settlement to the estate of Caden Berry. The 12-year-old Kiezer boy was allegedly strangled to death in January 2017 by his mother, months after his older brother relayed his concerns about Caden’s safety to child welfare workers.

In court filings in the Adams’ cases, Kramer said the state’s lawyers initially contended that state law that holds DHS liable for the intentional actions of foster children only applied to property damage. They also argued the foster father was negligent leading up to the shooting.

“Neither proposition was remotely supported by the facts or law in my opinion,” Kramer wrote.

Two-thirds of the settlement money from the women’s estates will go to their surviving heir, Robert Adams, according to court documents. Kramer will receive the remainder.

The settlement does not cover any wrongful death claims that may be filed on behalf of the 10-year-old victim.

Payshience Adams spent her entire life in foster care, according to a two-page public report by DHS regarding the circumstances of her death. Her foster parents were her paternal uncle and aunt. Her obituary said she went by “Tia.”

The DHS report identifies her by her given initials, “P.A.” The report summarizes the agency’s decade-long case history with her in two sentences. It found no fault on its part or lessons to draw from her death.

“Though the initial file review noted some recommendations, the (review team) determined there was insufficient information to support indicators of any systemic issues resulting in P.A.’s death,” the report said. “The (review team) concluded P.A.’s death was an unforeseen tragedy and there were no significant errors led to P.A.’s death.”

The report does not say Tia was killed by another foster child. It also does not say anything about the department’s interactions with her teenage brother before the shootings.

The alleged shooter, Kevin Adams, faces eight counts of aggravated murder. He turned 18 in June.

Taxpayers have paid $4.3 million since 2016 to settle five wrongful death claims against the Department of Human Services.

At least five more wrongful death cases are ongoing. One was filed on behalf of a second child who died in foster care in Douglas County. His foster home burned down, killing him, his foster mother and four of her children in March 2017.”

Oregon will pay $1.7 million after mother, daughter killed by teen foster son

[Oregon Live 12/6/19  by Molly Young]