Man accused of fatally shooting his sister-in-law and nephews to plead guilty
Concord, NH – A man from the New Hampshire accused of having killed his sister-in-law and two young nephews at the age of 16 should plead guilty of the second degree on Friday.
Eric Sweeney, now 19, lived with his older brother’s family in Northfield when the prosecutors said they had killed Kassandra Sweeney, 25, and his sons, Benjamin, 4 and Mason, 1, in August 2022.
He was to be tried for a first degree murder next month, but will plead in the guilty place of the less accusations during a hearing before the Merimack county. Sweeney, whose lawyers had planned to raise a defense of mental alienation, risk to life prison when they are sentenced to a later date.
According to the prosecutors, Sweeney’s older brother Sean, and his wife were the teenagers’ guards when the “growing behavioral problems of Sweeney began to cause tensions at home. In court documents, they say that Sweeney lied to the couple and violated the rules of the house, encouraging them to call the police to speak to him.
About two months before the deadly shootings, he left the couple a note that said in part: “I do not belong to this family, all I do is fly and lie and be irresponsible”, and closed with “I love you Big Bro and bye.”
When he was placed in police custody, Sweeney told the police that he had been in his room in the basement when he heard something breaking upstairs, a man in a deep voice and several “pops”, according to court documents. He said he went upstairs and had found his sister-in-law and nephews on the ground, then took the mobile phone and Kassandra keys and moved away. He then called his brother, who called the police.
Prosecutors had planned to show video clips from the jurors Kassandra Sweeney recorded on her phone showing that her sons “engage in a playful behavior” on the morning of the shooting, one of which created only 10 minutes before Eric Sweney leaves the house.
“In the three videos, the victims have no distress or other visible or audible signs which suggest that an unknown or unwanted third party was present with them,” said prosecutors in a judicial file last month.
