BENTON -- The lawyer for accused killer Robert McCoy conceded Wednesday that McCoy murdered three members of his estranged wife's family, but asked the jury for something less than a death-penalty verdict.
That admission came during opening statements in McCoy's first-degree murder trial in Bossier District Court.
District Attorney Schuyler Marvin addressed the jury first, telling them McCoy had been terrorizing his estranged wife, Yolanda. There was a 911 call from her family's home the night of the murders and police immediately knew they needed to find McCoy, Marvin said.
Officers arrived at the victims' home on Grace Lane in Bossier City to find everyone shot between the eyes, Marvin told the jury.
Then it was defense attorney Larry English's turn to address the jury. He told them his client committed the murders -- but that "Robert McCoy is crazy" and cannot make a rational decision. English asked the jury for a second-degree murder verdict, which would carry a mandatory life sentence without parole.
"In all of his soul he does not believe he committed these crimes," English said of McCoy. "He lives in a fantasy. He is a damaged human being that cannot function among us.
"The evidence will challenge your humanity. Hold on to your humanity," English told the jury.
McCoy is charged in the murders of Willie Ray Young, Christine Colston Young and her 17-year-old grandson, Gregory Colston.
More than a dozen people from the victims' family were in the courtroom during opening statements.
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