MALONE, N.Y. -
A 24-year old man admitted he killed his father in a Malone, New York courtroom today. Dale Jarvis Jr. told attorneys he hit his dad over the head with a sledgehammer and buried him in the backyard.
Dale Jarvis Jr. was arrested just two weeks ago - he pleaded not guilty to second degree murder, but in order to resolve the case for the sake of the family, he made a plea deal, admitted to the crime and pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter.
Wearing all orange, chains around his waist and arms and legs shackled, Dale Jarvis Jr. walked into court Tuesday and pleaded guilty to killing his father. Jarvis Jr. kept his head hung low and eyes locked on the table in front of him as he answered to the Judge.
"He flat out says there is great remorse," Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne said.
Family members wouldn't talk after court, but told the district attorney he didn't mean to kill him.
"As the manslaughter charge states, I intended to commit serious physical injury and instead, I killed you," Champagne explained.
And that's why the charge was decreased to manslaughter.
"The defendants version essentially matched our forensics," Champagne said.
Police say Dale Jarvis Jr. and his father, Dale Jarvis Sr. got into a verbal argument that escalated on February 21st.
"He saw essentially a broken piece of a sledgehammer and he went ahead and hit his father in the back of the head," Champagne said.
Jarvis Sr. wasn't reported missing for five months. Jarvis Jr. gave family members and police more than five different versions of the truth. He even wrote on a calendar that his dad had left - when in all actuality, he was lying in a make shift coffin in a crawl space on the side of the house. When the ground thawed, Jarvis Jr. buried his father five feet deep in the backyard, his wallet was found 11 feet deep.
"I don't think he was in the ground for several weeks, if not maybe a month or two," Champagne said.
The district attorney says this is the fastest resolution of a homicide he's ever seen, now both sides, the state and the defense will take a few weeks to make sentencing recommendations. Jarvis Jr. is facing between five and 25 years in prison.
Champagne says this deal will spare family members the gory details and mountain of evidence.
Dale Jarvis Jr. is being held without bail. He cannot reverse his decision to plead guilty, he only has the option of appealing his sentence.
