Warrant: Son Started to Plan Attack on Parents at Age 11

Ga. siblings accused of vicious attack said to be 'very nice kids'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 15, 2015 11:44 AM CDT

"I'm sure they didn't just wake up and decide to kill their parents yesterday." That was a Gwinnett County police officer's speculation after two Georgia brothers allegedly drugged and attacked their parents earlier this month. It appears that conjecture may have been spot-on: A search warrant revealed yesterday states that Cameron Ervin, 17, and Christopher Ervin, 22—both being held at the Gwinnett County jail without bond on charges of aggravated assault and first-degree arson—admitted to police "attempting to set the residence on fire, [attempting to strangle] their parents with a pillow and/or plastic bag, and stabbing the father," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. And while the Gwinnett County DA told the paper last week that both young men had hinted at a "bad home life," an unspecified brother reportedly mentioned something even more chilling: that he had been planning this attack since he was 11.

The brothers reportedly offered to make dinner for their parents the night before the attack, the warrant notes—a meal at which Yvonne and Zachary Ervin both apparently ingested Xanax-spiked drinks, police say. The parents revealed to cops that "their sons used plastic wrap and plastic bags to try to asphyxiate them," per WSB-TV, and Yvonne said "the sons poured an unknown substance on her and then she felt heat on the back of her leg and she believed this was ... to set her on fire." The case has baffled those who know the foursome. "If you call a troubled home life having everything you ever wanted, then I'll take that trouble any day," a family friend tells the Journal Constitution, while a neighbor tells WXIA, "Very nice kids ... I can't stress that enough." (A new study reveals the type of man most likely to murder his partner.)

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