Francis Weaver, son and grandson of killers, charged with murder

CANBY, Ore., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Francis Weaver fell into the same trap that snared both his father and his grandfather.

When Weaver, 31, was a toddler, his grandfather was sent to prison for murdering two people, and when Weaver was 22, his father was locked up for the murder of two girls.

Weaver has now followed in his father and grandfather's dubious footsteps and has himself been charged with murder in the Sunday shooting death of a Grants Pass, Ore., man.

Edward Spangler, 43, was found dead outside his car in Locust City Park Sunday. Police could see he had crashed into a tree, but on closer inspection, found he had had suffered from "multiple gunshot wounds."

Police arrested Michael Orren, 27, who admitted to shooting Spangler twice in the head. Weaver, along with Shannon Bettencourt, 32, were arrested and charged as accomplices for allegedly stalking Spangler with the intent to steal 15 pounds of marijuana from him.

According to court documents, they killed Spangler when the robbery attempt went sideways.

Weaver's step-father, Ward Weaver III, whom he grew up believing was his biological father, was convicted of the 2002 murders of Ashley Pond, 12, and Miranda Gaddis, 13, in Oregon City. He was spared the death penalty when he pleaded guilty to the girls' murders and other aggravated murder and rape charges.

Ward Weaver III's father, Ward Weaver Jr., is on death row for the deaths of two people he picked up hitchhiking in the Mojave Desert when he was driving a truck. Now 70, he was convicted of beating the man to death with a pipe, then repeatedly raping the woman and strangling her when she resisted.

He has an appeal to his death sentence pending and is being held at San Quentin State Prison in California.

[KGW] [Oregonian]