Man accused of shooting father for the life insurance
NEWCASTLE — A 37-year-old man was arrested Friday, accused of shooting and killing his father in 2012 and claiming the man’s death was a suicide.
James Kyle Brooks was charged Friday with firstdegree murder in Stephens County District Court in connection to the Aug. 8, 2012, death of Timothy Brooks in Marlow.
An officer who responded to the shooting at the home, 506 W Chickasaw Street, reported being met by James Brooks, who had called 911 and said his father had shot himself.
Inside, the officer found the victim “sitting in a chair wearing nothing but a pair of shorts” with a 12-gauge shotgun between his legs with the “muzzle pointed toward the ceiling,” according to a court affidavit.
The officer said the victim had a gunshot wound to his abdomen. Brooks reportedly walked over to his father’s body and picked up the shotgun before he was ordered to put it down and step away.
Brooks told investigators that he had been estranged from his father, who he said had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
He said he arrived at the home about 10 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2012, while his father was in the living room cleaning a shotgun. After Brooks helped his father clean the shotgun, his father loaded the shotgun and sat down in a lounge chair and began “talking crazy about seeing people he knew on the television,” Brooks told investigators, according to the affidavit.
After telling his father he was leaving, Brooks saidhis father threatened to shoot himself. He made the threats several more times over a 20-minute period before saying “watch this” and shooting himself in the abdomen. Investigators asked Brooks if his father had a life insurance policy, in which he replied that he did. Brooks said the policy was worth either $250,000 or $500,000 and that he and his sister were beneficiaries. He also said the policy “probably had a suicide clause, meaning it wouldn’t pay in the event of suicide.”
Investigators at the scene noticed spent shell casings next to Timothy Brooks’ body and one live round loaded in the gun. James Brooks was asked if he had cycled the spent casings out and loaded the live round, which he initially said he hadn’t done, then later said he must have done it but had no memory of doing so.
Investigators also reported that there was no evidence of anyone recently having cleaned a shotgun, stating that there were no “soiled cloth patches in the gun cleaning kit or in the trash and there was no lingering smell of gun solvent in the air,” according to the affidavit.
An autopsy report from the state medical examiner’s office said it was possible for the victim to have shot himself, but only after moving his body in an unusual, but not impossible way. His manner of death was listed as undetermined, but a note was included, which stated, “homicide cannot be entirely ruled out.”
After being shown a videotaped interview of James Brooks after the shooting, a medical examiner said he did not believe it was possible for Timothy Brooks to have shot himself in the way his son described, according to the affidavit.
In December 2016, investigators obtained a search warrant for all life insurance policies on Timothy Brooks, where they found James Brooks was the sole beneficiary. A year after the shooting, Brooks filed a claim with the insurance company and called the company “almost daily” about payment.
Brooks also hired an attorney, who sent letters demanding payment. Investigators said the insurance company eventually paid the value of the policy, $500,000, and issued a check for $8,000, which was interest on the policy and almost $2,000 for repayment of premiums James Brooks paid on the policy after his father’s death.
An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent wrote that based on the investigation, it appeared Brooks took out a $500,000 life insurance policy on his father and after the “suicide clause time had expired,” shot Timothy Brooks and staged the scene to look like a suicide.