Joshua Cooke's mother Margaret Cooke was looking at her son while he aimed a shot gun at her face.
Joshua Cooke's father was shot by his son seven times in their basement, as Paul Cooke talked on the phone with his daughter Tiffany, who was at college in Pennsylvania.
He lived through the first few shots before he died.
"It is hard to imagine a more brutal killing," said Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr., during Joshua Cooke's sentencing today, Wednesday, Oct. 1.
"She was looking at him while he was aiming that shot gun in her face," Horan said.
Cooke’s defenders told the court that the case was a “tragedy.” "I guess that is true, true for a lot of people," Horan said. "It is a tragedy for the relatives, it is a tragedy for the defendant. But in addition to that, It is a brutality. We say brutal with a capital 'B.'"
Joshua Cooke, of Oakton, was sentenced to 40 years in jail for the Feb. 17 murders of his adoptive parents, Margaret R. Cooke, 56, and Paul C. Cooke, 51.
"It is difficult to even comprehend," said Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen H. MacKay, as she read Cooke his sentence.