Aaron Deshong, 50, of Perkiomen Township.
After two days, the jury came back with a verdict.
In one fell swoop Wednesday, a Perkiomen Township man was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder by a jury and then sentenced to life in prison by Judge William R. Carpenter for shooting and killing his mother and brother at their kitchen table.
Aaron Eslie Deshong, 50, of the 700 block of Gravel Pike, fatally shot Wanda DeShong, 74, who lived with him, and his visiting brother, Adam Deshong, 53, of Devon, Chester County, on Sept. 24, 2023.
A jury took two hours to reach the verdict, according to The Reporter.
The jury rejected lesser charges of third-degree murder, which is a killing committed with malice, cruelty or hardness of heart, and would have carried a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison, according to the report.
Deshong sat motionless, speechless, and expressionless, arms crossed, when the sentence was handed down to him. The soundtrack to his fate was the tears of joy, anger and mourning of relatives and friends of the Deshong family.
His niece, Olivia DeShong, whose father was murdered by her uncle, said her “life was shattered” after discovering the deaths of her father and grandmother. “I refuse to be defined by his evil acts,” she said.
Read more on the conviction here.
According to the Montgomery County District Attorney, on the day of the homicides, at 5:02 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police responded to Deshong’s home after a male placed a call to an FBI Threat Assessment Center and indicated that he may have hurt his family members.
The FBI relayed the information to Pennsylvania State Police at Skippack, and troopers were dispatched. Police arrived on scene while the caller, later identified as Deshong, was still on the phone with the FBI, authorities said.
Deshong was detained by police, before they entered the home to find a Wanda and Adam Deshong dead in the kitchen, police said.
A Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver, registered to the defendant, was found in the defendant’s basement bedroom closet. The revolver had four spent shell casings in the cylinder as well as two live rounds, police said.
Autopsies on Wanda and Adam Deshong were conducted by Dr. Khalil Wardak of the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, who determined Wanda Deshong died of a gunshot wound to the head, and Adam Deshong died of multiple gunshot wounds, police said, with the manner being homicide for both.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
