Iowa teen pleads guilty to killing parents with knife, ax because he wanted to 'take charge of his life'

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (TCD) -- An 18-year-old man entered a guilty plea this week one day before he was set to go to trial for killing his parents in 2021.

According to the Cedar Rapids newspaper The Gazette, Ethan Orton pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his mother, 41-year-old Misty Scott-Slade, and his father, 42-year-old Casey Arthur Orton. The Gazette reports Orton also confessed to partaking in the aspects that constitute first-degree murder, including having intent to kill and deliberately and knowingly committing the crime.

On Oct. 14, 2021, Cedar Rapids Police officers went to a home on Carnaby Drive NE after receiving a call about a "suspicious person" and found Orton "outside the residence covered in blood."

Orton told police he killed his parents, and when they went inside, they found Casey Orton and Scott-Slade.

KCRG-TV reports Orton stabbed his parents, but when he saw that his mother was still alive, he used an ax to end her life. He reportedly told Cedar Rapids detectives he committed the crime in order to "take charge of his life."

Orton was charged as an adult, but because he was still a juvenile when he killed his mother and father, he will be eligible for parole, according to The Gazette. He faces up to life in prison.

MORE:

• Cedar Rapids teen pleads to fatally stabbing his parents in 2021 - The Gazette
• Homicide at 361 Carnaby Drive NE, 10/14/2021 - Cedar Rapids Police Department
• Cedar Rapids police: Teen admitted to killing his parents to 'take charge of his life', 10/14/2021 - KCRG