Susan Eubanks

Like the last case that I published here, this case too is about a woman who murdered her own children. However, unlike that last case I am not on the fence about anything in this case when it comes to the guilt or the reasons behind it. This case is pretty cut and dry and in my opinion, despite the fact that it will probably never happen, death row is the proper place for her.

On October 26, 1997 in San Marcos California Susan Eubanks took the lives of her four sons. Fourteen year old Brandon Armstrong and seven year old Austin Eubanks had been shot twice in the head. Six year old Brigham and four year old Matthew Eubanks had each been shot once in the head. A five year old boy was a witness to it all. When police arrived at the scene at about 7:30 pm they could hear moaning and crying inside the home. It was Susan Eubanks they heard. She suffered a gunshot wound to her abdomen.

So, what would drive this mother to kill her children? Prosecutors would say it was her hate for men and her addiction to pain medicine that fueled her anger. In fact, the police had been at her home just a few hours before while her boyfriend, Rene Dodson retrieved his personal things. Susan had been belligerent with the officer and he had threatened to arrest her. She had already vandalized Dodson's car so I am sure the officer could have found something to charge her with. In fact, there were several opportunities in which had things been just a little different four young men would still be alive.

Brandon would be found in the front room of the two bedroom home. The other three boys would be found in their room, on their bunk bed. By the time officers arrived all had died except for four year old Matthew who would die on the way to the hospital. Officers found Susan in her room. There were five letters around her. There was one addressed to John Armstong, Brandon's father; one to Eric Eubanks, the father of the younger boys; and one each to Rene, Susan's sister and her niece.

Susan would be charged with four counts of first degree murder and in August of 1999 jurors would hear what happened on that horrible day.

Susan and Rene had spent most of the day of October 27^th in a bar, drinking and taking Valium. According to Rene another couple joined them at their table but Susan did not like the woman and started an argument. Rene convinced Susan that they should leave. While in the car Rene said she continued the argument with him saying things like she did not feel he had taken her side and such. When Susan realized that Rene was headed home instead of a different bar he claimed she had literally gotten the keys out while he was driving it. He finally retrieved the keys and they headed back to her home where he was living with her. Also living in the home were Susan's three young sons, Austin, Brigham and Matthew, as well as her five year old nephew that she had gotten custody of when her brother had died. Fourteen year old Brandon lived with his father in Texas but this move had only occurred the month before but on this night he was in the home on a visit. Rene said once they got home they continued to argue and it got worse when he told Susan he wanted to move to Hawaii, apparently it seems with out her. Rene claims at this point she hit him, took his keys and blocked him from leaving the room and ripped phone wires out of the wall. Things seem to calm down or at least he wanted her to believe so as they then soon had sex. When they were done he told her he wanted to watch a movie in the front room but when she left the room he decided to sneak out of the house and ran to a nearby gas station where he called the police to come and help him get his things.

When the police officer arrived at the house with Rene she had already flattened two tires on his car and was removing things and putting them in her home. The officer ordered her to stop and helped Rene get his things. While they were doing so Susan started making allegations such as saying Rene owed her money and when that did not work she told the officer that Rene had raped her. It seems apparent that the officer did not believe her and had even threatened to arrest her.

In the meantime when all the fighting had been going on between Susan and Rene, Brandon had also left the home and gone to call a woman named Kathy. Kathy's son and Brandon were friends but apparently Kathy was also friend with both Susan and her estranged husband, Eric Eubanks. Brandon told Kathy about the fighting and asked if she would come get him and his brothers because it was really bad. Kathy would later say that she told Brandon to go back home and re-assess the situation and if things were not calmed down and he still felt they needed to leave to call her back. Kathy would later say that she was reluctant to go get the kids because she had been allowing Eric to stay at her home since his split with Susan and she was afraid that Susan would find out and her son and Brandon could not hang out anymore. Brandon never called Kathy back, but a little while later Susan called Kathy. She was asking her to come get the kids because she was afraid the cops were going to be showing up and she did not want the boys left alone. Kathy had said she would, but then apparently did not leave her house. Instead she informed Eric of the calls and despite there being a restraining order on him by Susan, Eric drove by the house to see what was going on. He showed up when Rene had gotten his things and the police officer was going to take him somewhere. Instead they moved Rene's things into Eric's car and the two men went to a bar for a while, together.

John Armstong would say that apparently after all of this had gone on Susan had called him and told him what had happened. She told John that he needed to talk to Brandon and tell him “to stick by me on this one, even if it means lying.” Apparently at this point she was worried she would go to jail. Meanwhile, at the bar Rene was telling Eric that Susan had made comments about killing herself and the boys but it did not seem that anyone took that seriously. At some point it seems that Eric dropped Rene off and headed back to Kathy's where he was staying. Sometime just before 6:30 Eric received a call but did not answer it. He listened to the voice mail and heard Susan's voice simply saying “Goodbye.” Eric decided to call the police and try to talk to Officer Deese. He had been the officer at the home earlier helping Rene get his things. Finally around 7:00 Eric talked to Deese and told him about the voice mail. Deese told him to call 911 and ask for a welfare check. And that is how the police ended up at the door.

So, between Rene, the police officer, the friend, Kathy and Eric there were multiple chances that could have saved those boys. Now, do not get me wrong here. I am not blaming any of these people for the fact that the boys would die. I am sure no one thought she would do such a thing. Rene was just trying to get away from the “crazy woman;' if Officer Deese arrested everyone that got angry the jail would be fuller than they already are; if I were Kathy I am not sure I would want in the middle of things and Eric, well technically he was not supposed to be there anyway.

At her trial the prosecution would have the day recounted by those who were involved, and still alive but they would also have other witnesses to testify about Susan's behaviors and personality. The defense would attempt to give the jury a sob story about how she was a poor, woman who had been beaten an abused by her husband. They went on about how she was having financial difficulties and a work injury had caused her to become addicted to drugs. They literally used the “she blacked out” defense. In fairness her lawyers surely did not have much to work with.

While the defense would claim she was a battered woman who blacked out, the prosecution looked at things very differently. Susan had apparently been a nursing assistant and at some point was injured on the job. There was never any sort of specifics on what those injuries were but at the time of the murders she was drawing workers compensation. She had first been married to John Armstrong and they had Brandon together. I heard very little about any issues in this marriage although there obviously were some considering the marriage did not last. It appears that Susan very quickly moved on.

Her next relationship was with a man named Larry Shoebridge. The two apparently lived together and during that time Susan became pregnant with her son Austin. Larry testified at Susan's trial that while together in 1989 an old girlfriend had contacted him apparently just to say “Hi.” Larry would allege that Susan became insanely jealous and put a gun to his head telling him she “could do whatever she wanted” and threatened to kill him. He waited until she was at work and he left that relationship. Susan later discovered where he was living though and saw him with a female friend and tried to attack her.

It appears that before Austin was born however Susan had moved on and married Eric Eubanks because by all accounts Austin seemed to carry the Eubanks name. While the defense would say that Eric was abusive toward Susan, it seems that she gave as much as she got. Susan and Eric would have Brigham and Matthew together. Also at some point Susan (and possibly Eric also) received custody of her nephew Aaron Stanley. Aaron was the son of Susan's brother, John. I found some information that said that Aaron was born in August of 1992 and sometime shortly after that John Stanley died of a drug over dose. Apparently Aaron's mother had several several (at last count I think I came up with five) but did not care for them. At some point she gave Aaron up to Susan and Eric.

It appears that both Susan and Eric had issues with alcohol. In June of 1997 Eric was convicted on the misdemeanor charge of spousal battery. There are not really any details on what exactly occurred. I am not going to tell you that he was not guilty in any way but Susan had already had violent outbursts with at least one other ex-boyfriend and later she would make false rape allegations against Rene. In the end Eric got probation but he was required to go to domestic violence and alcohol counseling. He refused to attend the alcohol classes, allegedly saying he did not need them (yeah right!) an was arrested for violating his probation and for a suspected DUI but it seems little of this. On September 5^th Susan would file for divorce and Eric would move out of the home. In the divorce filing Susan would allege physical abuse, claimed that Eric had threatened her and reported his alcoholism. The latter was little pot and kettle considering she too had an alcohol problem and was by then addicted to pain medications. In fact Susan had her own DUI in 1996. Police would say they found more than fifty bottle of prescription medication in her home.

To add to all of this Susan had began an on again, off again affair with Rene Dobson in 1994. It appears that he nearly immediately moved into the home upon Eric leaving. But hey between the days of October 13^th and 19^th Rene moved out, while Eric moved back in only to have Rene move back in. One week later he was calling the police to help him remove his things from her home! At some point there was a restraining order put on Eric by Susan but I suspect that it was in place long before he had moved back into the home for those six days but even still he was given visitation with his sons. Eric had also recently been ordered to pay Susan $870 a month in child support. She was also receiving $740 a month from workman's compensation. Susan had recently been ordered to pay $341 a month to John Armstrong for child support on Brandon. There was no mention of receiving money for her nephew but it is not out of the realm of possibilities depending on the status of her custody. The defense would talk about her being poor but if she got everything it says she was supposed to get, and paid her support she was bringing in over $1,200 a month which does not sound like a lot but this was twenty years ago. But, also keep in mind that not only had this all JUST happened in the span of less than two months, most of it was through her doing. She had chose to file for divorce and remain living in the home with the children. Whether John Armstrong had filed for custody and won or Brandon begged to leave the chaos is unclear, but either way she had a hand in that. She had allegedly started the fight with Rene that day causing him to leave, just as Larry Shoebridge had done years before. The common denominator here was Susan.

In fact, it was not just the men, or grown men that is, in her life that Susan was allegedly abusive to. Brandon's paternal grandmother told the court of at least two incidences in which Susan had abused Brandon previously. There had been other allegations, although I am unsure they were reported or investigated of child abuse. Susan's sister testified in which Susan had told her of smearing a dirty diaper in nephew Aaron's face. After her sister got angry Susan changed the story a bit making it sound less abusive.

It took the jury a total of two hours to convict Susan on four counts of first degree murder. It took them two days to decide she deserved the death penalty. Brandon was buried in Texas near his dad. A fund had been established for the burials but there seems to have been some issues with that. It appears that Eric Eubanks' employer had started the fund. John Armstrong received a portion of it for Brandon's burial. People say that Eric Eubanks became even a more broken man after the murders of his children, although there are some reports that he took care of Aaron Stanley. Others say he finally left San Marcos at some time a very broken man who would not even discuss the murders. It was also alleged that he was too distraught to even deal with the money that was collected and told whoever was in charge to basically “do whatever” with it. The three younger boys are buried in San Marcos. Their stones are simple slabs that have their first initial, their last name and their year of death.

Susan appealed her conviction and sentence but in 2011 the courts unanimously voted to uphold the lower courts decision. I have seen no other notices of appeals. On the California Department of Corrections website next to “parole eligible date” it says “condemned.” Next to “parole eligible date information” it explains that she has received the death penalty. Considering California has not carried out an execution since 2006. It is one of twelve states that has not executed an inmate in over ten years. And yet they still continue to sentence inmates to death. As of late 2017 California had nearly 750 people on death row awaiting an execution that may never come. However, there is hope for death penalty advocates, California keeps working on it, trying to get the courts to pass legislation to resume.