Oregon son, Michael Jefferson Bryant, 31, burns home, kills father, two pedestrians, dogs in murderous rampage: police

OREGON -- A lawyer for Michael Bryant, the Springfield man charged with murdering his father and two pedestrians in a Sunday afternoon rampage earlier this month, said Tuesday that his client’s defense will include “substantial evidence of serious mental illness.”

Portland attorney Conor Huseby provided a statement to The Register-Guard after learning the newspaper had obtained a police report that states Bryant showed no remorse while admitting his crimes to detectives, and insisted to them that he does not suffer from a psychiatric disorder.
 

Bryant with his father

Bryant, 31, was arrested the afternoon of Nov. 15 after he allegedly killed his father and beat his mother, then set fire to their home and stole their vehicle, which authorities say he used to intentionally run down three pedestrians — killing two of them.

A search warrant affidavit written by Springfield police Detective David Grice and made public this week in Lane County Circuit Court details a series of incriminating statements Bryant made to police after he was taken into custody.

Grice wrote that Bryant admitted during a post-arrest interview at the Springfield Police Department that he had attacked his parents with an aluminum baseball bat as the couple sat on their living room couch and watched television.

Police found his father, 64-year-old Jefferson Stanley Bryant, dead on the couch. His mother, Elizabeth Bryant, is recovering from serious injuries she sustained in the attack.

Bryant's parents

Two family dogs also were discovered dead in the home, which was heavily damaged in a fire that Michael Bryant allegedly set. At least one of the dogs was attacked with the baseball bat, Bryant allegedly told police.

Grice, in the affidavit, does not mention any potential motive but wrote that Bryant told police that he had been thinking about murdering his parents for two weeks before beating them with the bat.

Bryant also said he had contemplated fleeing to Mexico, and that a few weeks before the attack he’d withdrawn $800 from his mother’s bank account to cover the cost of an airline ticket he had considered purchasing, the affidavit states.

Bryant acknowledged during the police interview that after beating his parents and leaving them for dead, he walked upstairs and set a fire “because he was angry,” Grice wrote.

Bryant said he then fled the scene in his parents’ Toyota Highlander, according to the affidavit.

He also asserted, Grice wrote, that after leaving the family’s home off Centennial Boulevard, he intentionally drove the sport utility vehicle into three pedestrians, killing two of them — Rick Bates, 58, of Springfield, and Marc Jay Sanford, 49, of Portland. Sanford’s wife, Lorre, survived but was severely injured when the Highlander hit her.

Bates was struck by the SUV and died in the Value Village shopping center parking lot in west Springfield. Sanford was killed a short time later while walking with his wife in a crosswalk near Fifth Avenue and Willamette Street in downtown Eugene.

Grice wrote that Bryant “characterized the three pedestrians he’d struck as ‘being in the wrong place at the wrong time’” and expressed no remorse for any of his actions.

Eugene police arrested Bryant on the afternoon of the slayings, after a pursuit in which he drove over 80 mph while attempting to elude officers, according to the affidavit.

Bryant told a detective that he had wanted police to kill him “because he didn’t have the means to do it himself,” Grice wrote.

Bryant also said he does not suffer from a mental illness and had not used drugs or alcohol before the crime spree, according to the affidavit.

Police, however, found a workbook at the Bryants’ home titled “How to Escape Your Prison” with Michael Bryant’s name written inside it, according to a list of seized property filed in court along with Grice’s affidavit. The workbook is sometimes assigned to adults in substance abuse treatment, according to an Internet search.

Investigators also found bottles of unspecified prescription medication in Bryant’s bedroom, and obtained permission from a judge to test his blood for the presence of drugs.

Bryant is being held in the Lane County Jail on three counts of aggravated murder; two counts of attempted murder; two counts of first-degree assault; and single counts of first-degree aggravated animal abuse, first-degree arson and fleeing or attempting to elude police. He could face the death penalty if convicted of any of the aggravated murder charges.

(The Register-Guard - Nov. 25, 2015)