Charles Ewers booking photo
SACRAMENTO — A Sacramento man who drugged and bludgeoned his two children in April 2015 faces 22 years to life in prison.
Charles Lee Ewers, 40, plead guilty on Monday, May 8, 2017, in Sacramento Superior Court to two counts of attempted murder.
Ewers drugged and beat up up his 10-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son during a custody visit on April 4, 2015. He told his children they were “going to heaven” before trying to suffocate them and take his own life with car exhaust fumes inside his locked garage. He also admitted to causing great bodily injury and using a deadly weapon in the attacks.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies were called to Ewer’s home on North Avenue on the night of April 4, 2015 after the children’s mother called authorities because she was concerned that he had not returned their children at the assigned time.
Ewers gave his children Ambien sleeping pills, but then bludgeoned them with a mallet when the drug didn’t quickly take, prosecutors said. He then loaded them into the car and turned on the engine. Deputies were able to get the children out of the home and also pulled Ewers from the car.
The suspect told authorities that he had planned for months to kill his children and himself and that he was “in control” and would try it again if he could.
Sentencing is set for June 6, 2017, before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jaime Roman.
Prior to this incident, Ewers plead no contest to a domestic violence charge in 2013.
