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Two teenagers accused of murdering an elderly couple
in Stone County were formally arraigned in Associate Circuit Court and have
pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.
Within minutes of Juvenile Court Judge Alan
Blankenship ruling that Christopher James Allen and Anthony Joseph Zarro would
stand trial as adults for the January murders of Paul Brian and Margaret Susan
Brooks, Prosecutor Matt Selby filed charges against Allen and Zarro.
Allen, 16, of Nashville, Tennessee and Zarro, 17,
of Spring, Texas are each charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two
counts of armed criminal action, two counts of
robbery and one count of burglary.
“There was no evidence that the juvenile would
benefit from treatment in a juvenile facility. Given the seriousness and
particularly violent and vicious nature of the offenses, the age of the
juvenile and the limited time for rehabilitating someone who is charged with
these particular offenses, and the fact that no evidence was adduced to demonstrate
the availability of a facility which could guarantee the juvenile’s
confinement, it is apparent that there are no reasonable prospects for
rehabilitation,” Blankenship wrote in the certification decision.
Zarro had been raised in a drug riddled home
and was physically abused by his biological mother, according to evidence
presented at his certification hearing.
He had been in and out of the foster care system from the age of 4 until
he was adopted by Melody and Michael Zarro, Jr.
He had been in trouble for a burglary in Texas and spent two-and-a-half
years at Azleway Boys Ranch in Tyler, Texas, and another two-and-a-half years
at LUC in Lampe prior to the Brookses homicides.
It appears that Allen had little to no
criminal history prior to the murders.
He had been at LUC for about two years, according to court documents.
In the newly filed probable cause statement
that accompanied the state charges, Stone County Detective Matt Maggard wrote
that the boys had run away from the Lives Under Construction Boys Ranch near
Lampe on January 29th.
Court documents say that LUC contacted
authorities on January 31st to report that the window to an office door and
been broken.
“The reporting party stated nothing was stolen
from the office but believed the suspects were looking for the keys to the Boys
Ranch vehicles, which were removed from the office after Anthony and Christopher
had ran away,” the statement says.
Maggard says the Brookses had been gone for the majority of the
day and returned to their son's lakefront home at 1722 Trace Hollow Road in
Lampe about 4:30 following a doctor's appointment in Springfield.
An alert neighbor of the Brookses noticed the couples 2007
Saturn parked at the home of nearby neighbor's John and Holly Martin's house at
1712 Trace Hollow Road.
"The neighbor then observed Anthony and
Christopher carrying items out of the Martin's residence and placing them in to
Paul and Margaret's vehicle." The
neighbor then observed one suspect drive back to the Brookses residence while
the other suspect walked back.
The neighbor, who believed the boys were
burglarizing the couple, called authorities about 5:43 p.m. and held them at
gunpoint until authorities arrived.
When deputies arrived on scene they asked them
if anyone else was in the house. “Anthony
stated to Deputies that two other people were inside, and stated...I killed
them, I beat them with a baseball bat and stabbed them," according to the
newly filed court documents.
Deputies believe the couple, who would have
been married 50 years in July, were murdered in the kitchen of the home and
their bodies dragged to a bedroom where they were found deceased.
There was also evidence that someone had
attempted to clean the crime scene. At
the certification hearings for the teens last week, Detective Brian Landreth
said bloody rags had been found in a bedroom trashcan and bloody clothes were
discovered in a washing machine.
When the teens were searched, they both had
credit and debit cards belonging to the victims, according to the probable
cause statement.
When authorities searched the Brookses car,
they found wooden bedpost in the backseat of the vehicle that appeared to have
blood stains on it "from being used as a weapon." That bedpost was apparently taken from the
Martin residence, according to Maggard's written statement.
The investigation of the Martin's residence
revealed over $750 worth of damage to the interior of the home.
On February 7th, Becky Hamilton, an
investigator with the Department of Social Services, interviewed Anthony
Zarro. Zarro allegedly told her that he
and Allen "were responsible for breaking into the office building at the LUC
Boys Ranch" and were looking for keys to a vehicle they could steal.
The preliminary hearings for Zarro and Allen have both been scheduled
for May 29th.
