BROKEN ARROW, Okla. – Robert Bever, 19, was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty in the deaths of five of his family members last July.
Micheal Bever, the younger of the two, entered a "not guilty" plea and is expected to head to trial June 5 of next year. Michael is also scheduled to undergo a mental health evaluation on October 11.
Michael Bever will undergo a mental health evaluation on Oct. 11. Trial is slated to begin summer 2017. @KJRH2HD
— Darcy Jackson (@DJacksonKJRH) September 7, 2016
Robert Bever plead guilty to five counts of murder and one count of assault and battery with intent to kill.
DA Kunzweiler: determining factor were surviving family members. Says they requested Robert spend life in prison. @KJRH2HD
— Darcy Jackson (@DJacksonKJRH) September 7, 2016
"We will not speak of him again. He will not be breathing free air from now on." @KJRH2HD
— Darcy Jackson (@DJacksonKJRH) September 7, 2016
"My goal is to make sure these boys will never walk free again." Kunzweiler says he has obligation to community. @KJRH2HD
— Darcy Jackson (@DJacksonKJRH) September 7, 2016
RELATED | Documents, 911 call notes from Broken Arrow quintuple homicide | Charges filed in Broken Arrow Bever family homicides | Teen brothers arrested after parents, siblings found stabbed to death at Broken Arrow home
Michael, 17, and Robert Bever, 19, are both charged with five counts of first degree murder in the stabbing deaths of their parents and three siblings in July 2015.
District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler sent a statement not long after Robert Bever’s sentencing saying that Robert entered the plea in exchange for the DA’s office not seeking the death penalty.
Robert stood up in court and admitted to the killings of his mother, April Bever, father, David Bever, and three siblings, Daniel Bever, 12, Christopher Bever, 7, and Victoria Bever, 5, reported the DA’s office.
Kunzweiler went on to say that the decision to not seek the death penalty in Robert Bever’s case was mostly based off the two living siblings.
“Ultimately the single most important factor in my decision to resolve this case centered upon the needs of the surviving two children who lost everything in their lives. Those children deserve to be able to move on with their lives as best as they can without the continued torment of a trial and decades of appeals that a death penalty case would most likely bring. While I believe that Robert Bever deserves the death penalty for his savage actions, I feared that a death penalty prosecution would result in his teen-age sister being forced to recount and relive the brutal details of the carnage that her brothers wrought again and again. The toddler sister, who mercifully was asleep and did not witness the horror, would grow up learning details of the carnage in repeated court hearings that could easily stretch into her teen years or beyond,” Kunzweiler said.
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