Son Pleads Guilty to Murdering Parents

Bradley Charles Parlin formally admitted his guilt Wednesday in the brutal hammer murders of his mother and stepfather in their Rancho Bernardo home.

Parlin, 28, told Superior Court Judge Frederic L. Link that he killed the couple while he was committing a robbery. The guilty plea will bring him two sentences of life in prison.

“Do you understand, sir, that you will be suffering the penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole?” Link asked Parlin.

“Yes,” he responded.

The proceedings in Link’s downtown San Diego courtroom were serious and methodical, with Parlin--wearing his hair shoulder-length, a beard and a navy blue, jail-issue jumpsuit--sitting quietly next to his attorney, Bill Youmans, as Link constantly reminded him of the ramifications of his guilty plea.

The guilty plea “is a somber event,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Waters. “It’s (also) a very somber event when people are massacred in their own home by their son.”

Parlin admitted killing his mother, 64-year-old Jean Eckroad, and his stepfather, 76-year-old Wallace Eckroad, in their Abra Way home Sept. 19.

He admitted using a hammer to bludgeon both victims after Wallace Eckroad refused to give him money.

According to statements Parlin made to investigators after his arrest, the Eckroads had been financing Parlin’s extensive drug habit for some time but had stopped just before the attack.

Waters said Parlin “was not in a drug haze” at the time of the attack, but he may have been suffering symptoms of withdrawal from heroin and cocaine.

Parlin also pleaded guilty to one count of auto theft and six counts of robbery, which include four bank holdups.

After robbing the Wells Fargo Bank branch in Solana Beach on Sept. 24, Parlin was arrested in Ramona--but only after leading police on a high-speed chase throughout the county, including going the wrong way on a stretch of Interstate 805.

Parlin admitted three special circumstances, including murder during the course of a robbery and multiple murders. As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors will not seek the death penalty.

However, Waters said the two consecutive life-without-parole sentences to be handed down June 17 mean that Parlin will never be released from state prison.

“He will literally be carried out in a pine box,” he said.