ABILENE – A Taylor County jury sentenced an Abilene man to life in prison Thursday for the murder of his brother-in-law.
Luke Sweetser was accused of shooting Abilene realtor Tom Niblo to death over family and business issues.
Testimony lasted for six days in Abilene and the jury had a difficult time reaching the guilty verdict.
Sweetser was not arrested until after the murder weapon was found by a teenager playing in the creek behind his grandfather’s home in August 2018. The gun was initially too rusty to fire and was not made operable and tested until 2020. Those tests showed it fired the casings found at the crime scene where Niblo was shot and killed.
Sweetser was sentenced to life in prison Thursday afternoon, after a brief sentencing hearing. He was also ordered to pay a $10,000. The same jury who found him guilty of 1st Degree Murder after more than 12 hours of deliberation gave him the sentence. This time deliberations only took a little over an hour.
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Idiot thought he'd committed the perfect crime. He didn't think that some kid would find his gun after he threw it in a muddy creek. Registered in his name and never reported stolen, when recovered, that sealed his fate. Life will be Sweetser in prison ya greedy bastard.
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PermalinkSince the article mentioned casings, I surmise the fool did not police his brass. Should I ever think of offing somebody with a firearm, I'm using a revolver. Of course, I would then completely disassemble the weapon, grind off all serial numbers, scatter the parts across multiple diverse locations, and before disposing of the barrel immerse it in the most corrosive acid I could find.
Then I would still find myself on TV on "Forensic Files" because I had made a mistake the forensic scientists uncovered. I think I'll just decide to never off anybody.
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PermalinkYep... not murdering is a good policy, like Mama said.
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PermalinkIt depends on the target murderee. Some folks deserve it. It still boils down to a risk versus reward calculation, and I'm just not willing to gamble my being smarter than the cops since they get smarter every day.
Besides, since I'm viewed here as being a commie hippie pinko socialist, I'm supposed to be a pacifist. Peace out, dudes. Kumbaya.
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