Teen Accused of Killing Father May Be Charged as Adult

Prosecutors charged a 17-year-old Villa Park High School student Friday with murdering his father and asked a judge to let him be tried as an adult.

“It’s the nature of the crime and the role he played in it that warrants adult charges,” said Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Erickson, who is prosecuting the case.

The teenager was accompanied to the brief morning hearing in Riverside County Juvenile Court by his mother, who was divorced from the victim, Robert L. Swearingen, an Orange County probation officer.

The teenager, whose name is not being published because he is a minor, was charged with murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a murder. He will not enter a plea until a judge decides next month on whether he will face adult charges.

The decomposing body of Swearingen, 52, was found in his garage in Norco on Wednesday. His supervisors at the Orange County Probation Department asked sheriff’s deputies to check the home after Swearingen didn’t show for work for three days.

The teenager was taken into custody Wednesday after he drove up in his father’s truck to the residence in the 2400 block of Kips Korner. After being questioned throughout the night, he was arrested on suspicion of the shooting.

Authorities said Swearingen was shot in the upper body with his own gun, a .38-caliber service revolver, late Friday night after he and his son had argued on what was the last day of classes at Villa Park High School.

Neighbors reported seeing the teenager at his father’s home several times before the body was discovered, sheriff’s deputies said. It was not clear whether the teen had been staying at the house while the body was in the garage. The defendant lived alternately with his father in Norco and his mother in Orange.

The youth’s attorney, Richard Augustine, could not be reached for comment.