Overview

• James Edward Adams Sr. pleaded guilty in Brooke County court on Monday to first-degree murder in the 1987 killing of Edward Frank Adams.
• Judge Jason Cuomo accepted the plea after confirming a forensic evaluation found Adams competent despite brief denials recorded during the exam.
• Prosecutors said Adams used his father’s .22-magnum revolver to shoot him as he slept and then wiped the gun and staged the scene as a suicide.
• Investigators said Adams called 911 on Nov. 10, 2024 to confess and later told them he had waited to speak up to spare his mother.
• Prosecutor Allison Cowden credited the Brooke County Sheriff’s Office, noting the life-without-parole sentence closes a case dormant for nearly four decades.