Once Freed Of Murder, Man Held In 4 Deaths
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Acquitted of killing his parents five years ago, 22-year-old Joseph Corcoran is back in jail on charges he shot his brother and three other men to death.
Corcoran was charged with four counts of murder following last night's shootings at the home where he lived with his sister, Kelly Nieto. Her fiance was one of the victims.
Nieto says she now believes her brother killed their parents.
"Everything's gone. He's ruined my life. I hope he fries," she said.
During the 1992 trial, police said Corcoran killed his parents because they were too strict, then got on a bus and went to school. Jack Corcoran, 53, was found dead on a downstairs couch, while his wife, Kathryn, 47, was found dead in her bed, a gunshot wound to her neck.
But prosecutors had witnesses neither to the shootings nor the murder weapon. Jurors ultimately acquitted Corcoran after a five-day trial, saying there wasn't enough evidence to convict.
Police Sgt. Nancy Becher said Corcoran admitted to a role in the killings Saturday.
The victims were Corcoran's brother, James Corcoran, 30; Nieto's fiance, Robert Scott Turner, 32; Douglas Stillwell, 30; and Timothy Bricker, 30. Nieto's 7-year-old daughter, who was upstairs at the time of the slayings, was unhurt.
Corcoran is being held without bail pending a court appearance
today.