4 life terms for teen who killed family

TOWSON, Md., Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A judge in Maryland Friday sentenced a teenager to four life terms in prison for killing his parents and two brothers.

As he faced sentencing in a Towson, Md., courtroom for the February 2008 shooting deaths, Nicholas Browning, 16, asked his remaining relatives for forgiveness, The Baltimore Sun reported. Browning, in tears, was unable to read a prepared statement so his lawyer, Joshua R. Treem, read it for him.

"I cannot make the pain go away," the statement said. "I never considered what effect my actions would have. I thought only of myself."

Browning admitted he killed his parents, John and Tamara Browning, and his brothers, Gregory, 14, and Benjamin, 11, in their sleep. He said he used his father's pistol to kill his family after years of physical abuse and insults by his father.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. said he did not take Browning's allegation of abuse into account as a mitigating factor in the killings, The Sun said. The judge sentenced Browning to two consecutive life terms and two concurrent life terms.

Browning could be eligible for parole in 30 years, the report said.