Isaac Tiharihondi faced a judge on Thursday morning after being captured in Mississippi following the brutal murder of his parents and 5-year-old brother.
The capture came after FBI and HPD detectives tracked him from Texas to New Orleans to Jackson, Mississippi. The 19-year-old would not fight his extradition to Texas, though he remains in isolation in Mississippi until next week, according to KHOU.
Tiharihondi allegedly used a lamp, baseball bat, and hammer to kill his parents and then allegedly stabbed his little brother with a kitchen knife. All three victims were found in the back bathroom of the family’s apartment on Monday. He was charged with two counts of capital murder on Thursday morning.
“He appeared calm, he was in his right mind, he responded to the judge adequately,” said Othor Cain with the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s just a sad tragedy, especially you’re looking at a young man that is 19-years-old,” Cain said. “He had his whole life ahead of him.”
Friends and neighbors who knew the Tiharihondi family told KHOU Tiharihondi was a decent kid and that the charges came as a surprise to most people. The only indication of trouble, they say, was that his mother worried he might be depressed and believed he had lied about getting into the Marines.