Sons Plead Guilty in Father’s Killing

Two teenage brothers from San Bernardino pleaded guilty Wednesday for their roles in the death of their father, whom they shot and stabbed in the backyard of their home in August.

David Duke Jr., 18, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and personal use of a firearm in San Bernardino County Superior Court, and Eduardo Duke, 15, pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in the Aug. 21 attack of their father, David Dagoberto Duke, 48.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 26.

Rick Lal, the San Bernardino County deputy district attorney assigned to the case, said that David Jr. faces up to a 21-year sentence and that Eduardo faces a five-year sentence.

But as part of the plea agreement, the brothers will be sentenced as juveniles, not adults, and probably sent to the California Youth Authority, not state prison, Lal said. That would mean the 18-year-old could be released from custody when he turns 25.

Lal said the older son fired the fatal gunshot.

The settlement was made, Lal said, with a consideration to the brothers’ likely strong self-defense argument in a trial.

The San Bernardino County coroner ruled that the father was legally drunk and had a toxic amount of methamphetamine in his system when he died.

Lal said there was also a history of family violence. A family argument preceded the fatal confrontation, authorities said.