Man pleads guilty in shooting death of father

A 33-year-old man who shot and killed his father and then set the man’s body on fire at the rural Fort Erie property they shared will learn his fate this fall.

James Dylan Osborne appeared in Superior Court of Justice in Welland in July and pleaded guilty to a charge of seconddegree murder.

To be sentenced Oct. 28 before Judge Harrison Arrell, he is represented by defence lawyer Bobbie Walker.

He was arrested Feb. 3, 2018, after Niagara Regional Police received a call from a friend of 62-year-old Michael Osborne.

The friend reported Dylan Osborne had approached a neighbour in his driveway earlier that day and told him his father was “gone.”

Alarmed, the neighbour contacted two friends of the father who attended at the man’s residence on Pettit Road.

Court heard Dylan Osborne told the men his father was dead and that he had shot him after they got into a “shooting match.”

Dylan Osborne claimed his father had attacked him and had shot him in the foot.

Police spoke to several people who reported Michael Osborne had not been seen since Jan. 24, which was unusual as he was usually seen by his neighbour on a daily basis.

Dylan Osborne initially told police he shot his father in selfdefence.

He was taken to Greater Niagara General Hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to his foot.

Dylan Osborne later admitted to police he had shot his father then shot himself in the foot.

He also confessed to burning his father’s body.

The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal and a forensic anthropologist examined a fire pit on the property and discovered bones, remains of a torso and a skull.

Court was told the defendant had been living with his father since Jan. 2, after he was evicted from his apartment in Niagara Falls.