Bart Whitaker is currently serving life imprisonment in a prison in Houston, Texas. Officials initially sentenced him to death for the murders of his mother and younger brother. However, upon his father Kent’s request, the death sentence was commutated to life imprisonment. This new sentence did not involve the possibility of parole.
Bart Whitaker’s mother, Patricia, was 51 at the time of her death and his younger brother Kevin was only 19. Bart himself was 23 when he ordered his roommate Chris Brashear to kill his family.
This tragic case will be covered in detail in the upcoming episode of Final Moments on Oxygen. The episode is titled The Last Celebration and it will air on Sunday, November 19, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. ET on Oxygen.
The official synopsis of the episode reads, “A night celebrating Bart Whitaker’s college graduation ends in horror when a gunman attacks him and his family, killing his mother, Tricia, and brother Kevin; as police try to unravel the tragedy, they uncover family secrets and a surprising suspect.”
Why did Bart Whitaker want to get rid of his family?
According to Click2Houston, Bart Whitaker ordered the murder of his family to receive $1 million of inheritance money.
This entire tragedy transpired on December 10, 2003. Bart first falsely announced to his family that he was going to graduate. According to ABC News, the Whitakers went to a Cajun restaurant to celebrate. However, when they returned home, Chris Brashear was already waiting for them. He shot Patricia and Kevin. Both of them instantly died.
In a conversation with ABC News’ Mary Fulginiti in 2009, he said, “I recognize now how wrong I was on all of that. But at the time, I really believed in that. I held them completely at fault for the man that I had become.”
Brashear even shot Bart’s father. However, he survived.
