Who is Jethro Jacobs? Man, 73, fatally shoots younger brother, 66, says he was a 'piece of crap'
QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY: A 73-year-old man, named Jethro Jacobs, is accused of shooting brother George Jacobs, 66, at their mother’s house on 230th Place near 141st Avenue in Laurelton at about 7.50 am on October 15. The alleged gunman is now facing charges of murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
According to Daily News, Jethro’s lawyer, James Latimer, claimed in court that his client shot only after his brother took out a knife on him. Jethro, who owns the family’s Laurelton house, told police that he returned to Queens from Virginia to take his 92-year-old mother to her sister’s funeral on Monday, October 17 when his brother George locked him out of the house over the weekend, court papers show. Jethro waited in his car for three hours before his brother came only to threaten him, said the lawyer. After the shooting, Jethro called the police and waited for them to arrive. While narrating the details of the incident, Jethro told police, prosecutor Christine Occhiogrosso during the arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Sunday, October 15, "He’s a piece of crap. I’m confessing," and added, "I shot him three times with a .357 from Virginia. I thought I missed him so I shot him again." The victim was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and was later pronounced dead, as per NY Post.
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Who is Jethro Jacobs?
Jethro, who legally owned the gun, served in Vietnam and worked as a US Customs agent for 30 years before retiring in 2000. Judge Denise Johnson said, "Mr Jacobs’ actions that he took were certainly justified. He was being attacked by a drug-addicted brother who was leeching off his mother.”
Neighbors said the fight between the brothers was years old, reports NY Post. One of the neighbors, Clement Louisy, said, "George is a nice guy, but when it came to his brother, he’s really out there with the aggression. When he sees him, he just wants to fight. He said that there was family stuff going way back. They just didn’t get along, and they can’t stand each other. At least that’s what George told me. He told me his brother owned the house and he wasn’t paying rent up until a year ago. A year ago, his mother actually started paying rent.” He added by saying, "George would do the yard work and the stuff on the outside, but he couldn’t do the work on the interior, and his brother was really getting upset that he was messing up the inside of the house. George’s biggest problem was realizing that he didn’t pay rent and he didn’t own the place, so he shouldn’t be asking for the older brother to pay for fixing up the inside. He would call him and say this is broken or that’s broken, and he wanted his brother to pay to fix stuff.”
Jethro was ordered held on $250K bail and got arraigned on a second-degree murder charge. He now will return to court on October 19.