A adopted Russian teen who murdered his American pilot father and mother, was brutally disciplined, forced to sleep on concrete floor, starved and tortured, according to court documents.
Carl Edward Brewer, 18, is accused of murdering American Airlines pilot Troy Gene Brewer, 60, and his wife Mary Brewer, 64, in their house in Crowley, Texas, at the beginning of this week.
But the teen’s lawyer Jack Strickland insists there are ‘two sides’ to the story, and that Brewers adoptive parents were brutal disciplinarians, the Star Telegram reports.
Teacher from Deer Creek Elementary School in Crowley, where the teen went to school, told investigators that the defendant was punished at home by being forced to sleep on the concrete floor in the garage.
Carl Edward Brewer, 18, (left and right) is accused of murdering American Airlines pilot Troy Gene Brewer, 60, and his wife Mary Brewer, 64, in their house in Crowley, Texas. But court documents show he was starved, and tortured before the murders
Dead: It’s not been announced how Mary (pictured) and her husband died, but guns were mentioned in a search warrant. Brewer barricaded himself upstairs before a 12-hour standoff
One educator said the boy’s parents would also starve him as punishment, which once resulted in Brewer fainting a school. Another saw the 18-year-old being forced to stand in the front yard, holding two buckets as his arms shook and his father warned him not to drop them. They said they saw the cruel test on several occasions.
Another said Brewer was so ‘starved for attention’ that when she gave him a hug he ‘just melted,’ court documents state.
Several teachers, one of whom described his parents as ‘very military’ and ‘not very loving,’ said they reported the abuse to Child Protective Services.
But a CPS spokesperson confirmed they were not involved ‘in the investigation into the parents.’
Many of the teachers described the teen as ‘very intelligent’ and someone who gave them ‘very little trouble,’ according to the court documents.
Police were alerted to the double homicide on Tuesday, when one of Brewer’s friends called them saying that the teen had admitted to killing his parents while they were smoking weed together.
Scene of the crime: Gene Brewer, 60, was found in the master bedroom of their Crowley home (pictured); wife Mary, 64, was found in a trash can in the living room
Officers arrived at the home Tuesday daytime to check and didn’t see anything amiss – but noted they couldn’t make contact with the Brewers. The case was passed on to the night shift, but when officers followed up, they smelled the ‘odor of death’ coming from the house, Lt Robert Gray said.
SWAT were called in and found Brewer – who was adopted from Russia by the couple – barricaded into an upstairs room and unwilling to talk.
Mary’s body was stuffed into a trash receptacle, WFAA said.
A search warrant said that the couple were believed to have been killed sometime between 6:30pm Monday and 4:35pm Tuesday.
If that’s the case, Brewer spent hours in the house with the couple’s bodies.
Houses on the street were evacuated while SWAT tried to talk Brewer into giving up, but he only surrendered, 12 hours later, when tear gas canisters were fired.
Teachers say Brewer was starved of food as punishment and once even fainted at school
He was not ‘combative,’ police chief Luis Soler told the Star-Telegram. ‘He was very calm.’
Johnny Griffin, who lives next door, said the evacuation ‘scared my girls to death,’ and added that he’d ‘seen the police over here several times.’
‘You kind of figure anything can happen over there.’ he said Griffin. ‘[The police] were over there quite a bit.’
Brewer and his parents were the only ones living in the house. His two older brothers live out of state.
A pastor who knew the parents, said that Brewer and his two older biological brothers – who were all adopted by Mr and Mrs Brewer at a young age – had a history of ‘outbursts’.
‘They did have outbursts from time to time from what the boys experienced before adoption in Russia,’ said CB Glidden, who had been forced to expel Brewer and one of his brothers from the Nazarene Christian Academy for bad behavior.
‘That seemed to really impact the choices they made here. This just wasn’t the right place for them.’
Police aren’t saying how the Brewers were killed, but the search warrant said police were looking for two guns that has previously been reported stolen.
Mr Brewer’s body was in the master bedroom, according to police, while Mrs Brewer’s body was found in a ‘trash receptacle’ in the living room.
Brewer has been charged with two counts of murder and is being held on $200,000 bond – one for each murder charge.
Police said in a public statement that this was an isolated family incident and that the wider public were not in danger.