Sentencing for Seth Peterson is set for mid-April in Seventh District Court after a defense Motion to Arrest Judgment on the conviction of Aggravated Murder.
Sentencing had been scheduled for Feb. 7 before the motion was filed. The 26-year-old Ferron man was convicted on four felony counts in connection with the shooting deaths of his mother, 45-year-old Susan Peterson, and brother, 23-year-old James Peterson on Nov. 2, 2016.
Peterson was charged with two Aggravated Murder counts, one of Attempted Criminal Homicide, one of Aggravated Robbery and one of Failure to Respond to an Officer’s Signal to Stop.
After a three-day trial in December 2017, a jury returned a verdict of guilty on a lesser offense of Manslaughter on count 1 and guilty on the remaining charges.
Defense Attorney Rudy Bautista submitted a defense of voluntary intoxication, claiming Peterson had been using methamphetamine for four days, which left the defendant sleep-deprived, dehydrated and in a state of psychosis.
In the Motion to Arrest Judgment, Bautista contends Peterson shot his mother because he believed she was a demon. That resulted in a verdict of guilty on the manslaughter charge. But the motion argues the killings of Susan and James Peterson occurred only 30 seconds apart, so the killing of James Peterson should have also resulted in a manslaughter conviction, rather than Aggravated Murder.
The defense requests that the Court set aside the judgment as inconsistent verdicts.
The court will hear arguments on the motion on April 18. Sentencing is scheduled the same day.
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