Teen-ager receives life sentence for killing parents

THOMSON - An 18-year-old who shot his parents in the head then stabbed his sister three times and fled to Florida in the family car has been sentenced to life in prison. <br> <br> Matthew David Dean pleaded guilty to murder Tuesday in the Aug. 3 deaths of David Dean, 40, and Terri Dean, 35. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on his sister, Bethany Dean, and was sentenced to 15 years. <br> <br> Dean will have to serve at least 28 years before he is eligible for parole, District Attorney Dennis Sanders said. <br> <br> The teen-ager was captured Aug. 4 after a head-on collision with a pickup truck at Kennedy Space Center. The pickup&#39;s driver, Eddie Delawder, 52, of Winter Park, Fla., was killed, and Dean was seriously injured. <br> <br> ``I&#39;m genuinely sorry for the acts. I do take total responsibility,&#39;&#39; Dean said before the sentencing. ``I&#39;ve lost two people very dear to me. I&#39;ve lost my whole life. I&#39;ve made my apologies to my parents and to my sister.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Sanders said Dean met a friend the day of the killings, and they went to buy cocaine. After going home, he argued with his father. <br> <br> About 6:30 p.m., the parents were at the kitchen table when their son returned with a .22-caliber pistol and shot his father in the back of the head, Sanders said. <br> <br> Mrs. Dean went to assist her husband and may have been kneeling when she was shot. The bullet went into her earlobe and down into her body, and then she was shot in the back. Two other injuries on her head indicated she was also bludgeoned, Sanders said. <br> <br> Bethany Dean was dialing 911 when her brother took the phone and stabbed her with a knife, Sanders said. She pretended to be dead. After Dean took money from his parents wallets and fled, she ran to a neighbor&#39;s house. <br> <br> Dean left a note that said: ``I don&#39;t know what&#39;s wrong with me. I don&#39;t know why I&#39;ve done it. I love everybody. Bye.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> He called his girlfriend and told her that his mother, father and sister were dead and that he planned to kill himself. He drove to Florida, where on a straight stretch of road the next day he collided with Delawder&#39;s truck. <br> <br> The Deans were well known in Thomson, which is 30 miles west of Augusta. <br> <br> ``If we have ever had a tragedy of gigantic proportions, this is it,&#39;&#39; Superior Court Judge Roger Dunaway said. ``This has torn this community apart.&#39;&#39;