Ohio: Man who killed 3 says he has 'evil thoughts'

BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio (AP) -- A man sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering his girlfriend's daughter and an elderly couple said in his videotaped confession that he constantly has "evil thoughts" and thinks about killing. Samuel K. Littleton II, of western Ohio, pleaded guilty to three counts each of aggravated murder and gross abuse of a corpse in a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty for the three February slayings. He shed some light on his thinking during hours of taped interrogations after he was arrested in West Virginia, The Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported Sunday. "I think evil thoughts all the time. I mean, there ain't one minute that I don't say or think about how to snap somebody's neck, crush their head," Littleton, 37, told investigators. "Why would a person have that kind of thoughts all the time?" Littleton lowered his head and sobbed as investigators showed him pictures of 84-year-old Richard Russell and 85-year-old wife Gladis Russell and then pleaded with him to reveal where their bodies were. Authorities believe he killed the Russells at their rural Lewiston home, put their bodies in the trunk of their car and drove south. Their bodies later were found in Tennessee and Georgia. Their car was found in Princeton, W.Va., where Littleton has relatives. When investigators asked about Littleton's girlfriend's daughter, he replied that he "snapped." The body of Tiffany Brown, 26, was found in the basement of the Bellefontaine home that Littleton bought from the Russells. "I don't know why I snapped. I don't," he said, crying. "I don't know why I done it. Everything just happened so fast." As the questioning intensified, he vomited and then asked why God had not ended his life, the newspaper reported. "What a creator, huh?" Littleton said. "Create somebody with an evil thought and mind like mine. I'm a bad person." Several times, he referenced the idea that he should die, including when he asked an investigator to "do the world a whole big favor" by laying his loaded gun on the table and leaving the room. A couple of hours into the interrogation, Littleton's father, Sam Littleton Sr., was allowed to see him. "Can't take back what I done," the younger Littleton said during the half-hour exchange, which ended with a tearful hug. "I'm not right in the head." The case file released by prosecutors shows a co-worker told detectives Littleton had used LSD in the three weeks before the killings, the newspaper said, noting that Littleton had a rough past. He'd bounced between relatives and foster care as a child, had at times been homeless and, according to the local sheriff, was known for using marijuana as a teenager. Brown's mother and Littleton's longtime partner, Deb Neeley, said she thinks he's sorry for what happened. "I just don't think he has the guts to say anything to us," she said after he was sentenced. "He's a coward." Published: Tue, Apr 19, 2011