Man who murdered his parents and siblings with axe in 1988 to be released
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Man who murdered his parents and siblings with axe in 1988 to be released
The Minnesota House of Representatives released a statement last week announcing convicted axe murderer, David Brom, will be released from prison.
David Francis Brom was born October 1, 1971, in Rochester, Minnesota.
In 1984 he moved with his parents and two younger siblings to Cascade Township, a more rural part of Rochester.
On the night of February 18, 1988, David and his father, Bernard, were talking about a music record, when they got into a verbal argument. David couldn't sleep that night, and sometime between the hours of 1:30am and 3am, he retrieved a 28 inch axe and snuck into his parents’ bedroom while they slept.
He brought the axe down onto Bernard multiple times, killing him, before moving on to kill his mother, Paulette, who was sleeping on the other side of the bed.
Brom then went into the bedrooms of his siblings; 13-year-old Diane, and 11-year-old Ricky, and murdered them, wiping out his entire family in a single night.
Autopsy reports would later state that there were 56 wounds across the four victims, mostly to the head and upper body.
Brom then left the axe at the bottom of the basement stairs and got ready for school that morning.
Although David Brom was seen on school grounds at Lourdes High School that day, he did not attend any of his classes.
He drove around in the family vehicle, making various stops throughout the day, including a park, a grocery store, and a pizza place.
He then withdrew $250 from IBM Credit Union.
By 5:23pm that same day, the Olmsted County Sheriff's office had received a concerned call, and deputies were dispatched to the Brom family home where they discovered an unlocked door. Upon entering, they proceeded to the second floor, where they found all four decedents in a state of rigor mortis, indicating the murders had happened more than ten hours prior.
The eldest of the Brom children, Joe, was located at his restaurant job, where he was a cook. According to reports, Joe had left the family home to live with friends.
Realising David Brom was unaccounted for, police put out an alert, which a teacher of Brom’s responded to after seeing him at a local shopping mall that evening.
That night, at around 11:00 pm, the vehicle Brom was using was discovered in the vicinity of Methodist Hospital.
Knowing the suspect couldn’t have gotten far, police searched throughout the night.
At approximately 8:30am the following morning, David Brom, who had been hiding in a culvert throughout the night, was arrested at the Valley high post office Northwest Rochester. A member of the public had seen him making a call from a payphone and contacted authorities.
Brom was detained without incident.
He was charged with 4 counts of first-degree murder, as well as 8 counts of second-degree murder and was held in jail under 24 hour surveillance.
He appeared calm throughout his arrest and arraignment. A psychiatric examination was ordered for the teenager.
Attorney Terry Walters recalled seeing his client for the first time, exclaiming:
"My first reaction was you have got to be kidding. This kid couldn't have weighed more than 120 pounds. He was skinny as a rail. Braces on his teeth. Gangly. Gawky. He was sixteen but he could have passed for fourteen."
The news of David Brom’s crimes shocked those that knew him.
His classmates said their jaws dropped when they first heard the news and said he “wasn’t like that.”
He was tested by forensic psychologist Dr. Carl Malmquist, and underwent a week-long assessment while staying at the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center. During this assessment Malmquist discovered that the suspect had tried to end his own life twice the previous year.
On March 11, Brom was transferred from the County jail to the Red Wing juvenile correction facility and discussions began to take place to determine if he should be tried as a child or an adult.
Since State Law permitted that Brom must be tried as a juvenile, the judge at the time, Judge Gerald Ring, ruled that Brom be tried as a juvenile, although he commented that he did not agree, but "had to follow the law."
The public, who wanted Brom tried as an adult, were outraged and phone calls poured in. The public also began to write letters to local papers expressing their views, to the point where media outlets had to state they had enough material and did not need any more public opinions on the case.
In Mid-October 1988, the Court of Appeals reversed the judge’s ruling, and stated Brom would be instead tried as an adult
"I think they were as troubled as I was with the outcome and they had a little more liberty to play with the law than I did," said Judge Ring of the decision..
Although appealed by the defense, by late January of 1989, the Supreme Court stuck with the ruling to try Brom as an adult.
He went on to plead not guilty by reason of mental illness.
Minnesota law at the time dictated that in order to be found mentally ill, the person committing the crime must either not know the nature of the act, or be unaware that the crime is morally wrong. Brom did not fit this definition and therefor was held accountable for the murders.
He was ultimately sentenced to three consecutive life prison sentences for the deaths of his mother, father, and younger brother, and one concurrent life sentence for the death of his younger sister.
A minimum of 52 years would have to be served before he could apply for release, at which point he would have been 70 years old.
Attorney Walters said of Brom: "David's a bright guy. his goals in life before all this happened were to be a high school teacher. He wasn't someone on the track to a wasted life. I stop and think back to when I was 16. I look back and realize how immature you are. The thought of being locked up until 70 for something that happened at 16, no matter how heinous it was, just boggles the mind."
In a recent statement put out by Matt Bliss of the Minnesota House of Representatives, the reason Brom qualified for early release is: "is a direct and disturbing consequence of a 2023 law passed by Democrats that allows even the most violent offenders to qualify,"
Bliss added: "That law created the earned incentive release credit program, allowing inmates to reduce their time served through participation in rehabilitation programs."
The law is considered controversial by some, who do not believe that Brom should go free, and the debate surrounding the case continues to be heated.
Brom is set to be released to a halfway house in the Twin Cities on July 29, 2025, where he will be part of a work release program.