A Missouri man who served time for a triple homicide nearly 50 years ago before being paroled was sent back to prison after pleading guilty to his fourth murder.
Torrance Epps, 79, pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Tiandra Johnson, 32, while he rolled his wheelchair through a senior housing complex where he lived on Jan. 19, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Epps told St. Louis Circuit Judge Dennis Schaumann that he shot Johnson because he thought she entered his apartment with a backup key from the complex’s office to steal from him. Johnson was later found dead in a hallway at the Lafayette Towne senior housing complex.
“It was my life savings,” Epps said.
“Is that reason to shoot somebody?” Schaumann replied.
“I was awfully upset,” Epps said. “I’m awfully sorry.”
Epps said he was “guilty as charged” after Schaumann read each count against him, including assault, two gun charges and two counts of armed criminal action.
Schaumann then sentenced Epps to 18 years in prison after accepting terms of a plea deal. Epps received a 30-year sentence after killing his wife’s mother and her grandparents in 1973, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
At the time, Epps was looking for his son and wife, who told relatives she left him because he hit her. After becoming convinced that his in-laws were helping to hide the pair, Epps fatally shot Pauline Clark, 44, and her 72-year-old parents, Matthew and Pauline Sherman.
Epps served 14 years in prison before being paroled in 1988. He was sent to a halfway house before escaping a month later and becoming a fugitive for eight years. He was then apprehended in a food stamp fraud crackdown and was sent back to prison before being paroled in 2003, the Post-Dispatch reports.