Overview
- Jurors in Sarasota County found Tower guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of fleeing law enforcement.
- Tower testified that he planned the attack, stabbing his father as he slept and forcing his mother back from a neighbor’s door before killing her.
- Prosecutors presented forensic evidence, including Tower’s DNA on one knife and his father’s blood on another, to support premeditation.
- Police said Tower tried to clean the scene, then led a highway pursuit on I-75, fled into nearby woods, and was arrested the next day at a gas station.
- The defense urged a manslaughter verdict, arguing temporary insanity tied to childhood trauma in Ukraine, but the conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.