Ashton Sachs: The Murders and the Surviving Siblings

Ashton Sachs is a convicted double murderer who, at 19, drove from Washington State to his family’s San Juan Capistrano home in February 2014 and fatally shot both of his sleeping parents, paralyzed his eight-year-old brother, and fired at his 17-year-old sister. He pleaded guilty in 2016 and is serving four consecutive life terms plus more than 100 years in California state prison, with no possibility of parole.¹

The Night of the Shootings

In the early morning hours of February 9, 2014, Ashton drove roughly 18 hours from the Seattle area to his family’s mansion on Peppertree Bend in San Juan Capistrano. He entered through an unlocked garage door carrying a Ruger SR22 semi-automatic rifle loaded with 25 rounds. According to his later confession, he paced through the house for 10 to 15 minutes before entering his parents’ bedroom.²

He shot his father, Brad, 10 times, including in the face. He shot his mother, Andra, 12 times as she slept.³ He then walked to eight-year-old Landon’s bedroom and shot the boy in his sleep, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. He went next to 17-year-old Alexis’s room and fired at her, but missed. Two other daughters were in the house that night but could not identify the shooter.⁴ In all, he fired 24 of the 25 rounds. Afterward, he fled the home and drove back to Washington.¹

What Investigators Found

Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigator Justin Montano described the early phase of the case as a “true whodunit” with “very little evidence.”⁵ The Sachs family had a long list of business disputes and lawsuits, and detectives worked through a wide field of possible suspects. Both Ashton and his older brother Myles told investigators they had been in Washington at the time.¹

About three weeks in, detectives found a call to an auto transport company arranging for a car to be moved from a Sachs-owned commercial property in San Juan Capistrano up to Seattle. They traced a white Prius belonging to Ashton to a Seattle storage facility. A search of the trunk turned up a .22-caliber rifle, and ballistic analysis matched it to the shootings.¹

On March 6, 2014, roughly a month after the killings, investigators confronted Ashton at a Southern California condo where he was staying with Myles. When they told him they knew he had been in Orange County the day of the murders, he confessed. “I just started shooting,” he said, calling the act “a rush.”² In a later videotaped interview, he added: “I couldn’t even remember… It was just a rush. I was not myself. I don’t know. I was something twisted.”³

The evidence of premeditation ran deeper than the 18-hour drive. Ashton had bought the rifle weeks in advance. He wore gloves during the attack to avoid leaving prints. Before the killings, he had researched the legal consequences of attempted murder, felony murder, the insanity defense, and parole terms.¹

Guilty Plea and Sentence

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office charged Ashton with two felony counts of special circumstances murder for committing multiple murders and two felony counts of attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation. The charges carried enhancements for personal use of a firearm causing death, personal use of a firearm causing injury, and causing paralysis. The case was filed as No. 14ZF0333 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.⁶

In May 2016, Judge Gregg L. Prickett granted Ashton’s request to represent himself, replacing his public defender, Seth Bank. The judge warned him that acting as his own lawyer in a case this serious was “almost always an unwise move” and told him, “It will not likely be a fair contest.”⁷

On September 20, 2016, Ashton entered a guilty plea at his own request and without a previously scheduled hearing. “I intentionally killed with premeditation and deliberation both Bradford and Andra Sachs,” he told the court.² He pleaded to two counts of murder with special circumstances and two counts of attempted murder, and admitted the firearm and paralysis enhancements.⁸

On October 14, 2016, Judge Prickett handed down four consecutive life sentences plus an additional 100 years for the firearm enhancements and Landon’s paralysis, with no parole. The judge said that to serve the full term, Sachs would have to live at least four lifetimes and would still owe more than 100 years. He cited the “shameless brutality” of the crimes. Senior Deputy District Attorney Mike Murray, who prosecuted the case, told the court: “The defendant is a sociopath. He has no remorse, no empathy. All he cares about is himself. He is a manipulator.”³ Victim impact statements were read by Myles Sachs and by Lisa McGowan, Brad’s sister.⁸

Why He Did It

Ashton had once been a California honors student, but by the time of the murders his life was unraveling.⁹ He was enrolled at a community college in Seattle and had largely stopped going to class, spending his days smoking marijuana and playing video games.³ Prosecutors pointed to earlier warning signs: he had been found with a knife at school, was caught shooting birds, and had a previous suicide attempt that he said his parents did not take seriously.

Investigators described him as feeling “rejected” by his parents, believing they never trusted him and excluded him from family activities, while treating his older brother Myles as the “heir apparent” to the family business.¹ Ashton told investigators his parents had said their wealth would go to charity when they died, with only enough set aside for the children’s education. Family members also said he was fascinated by the 1989 Menendez brothers case; he wrote a college paper on the killings and boasted to his parents about receiving an “A” on it.²

What Happened to the Surviving Siblings

Four Sachs siblings survived: Myles, Alexis, another sister (sometimes identified as Lana), and Landon. A San Diego court granted Myles, then 23, temporary custody of his younger siblings and extended his guardianship through October 2014.¹⁰ He also took over Ashby Enterprises, the family’s property management firm, honoring a promise he had made to his mother to keep the family together.¹¹

Control of the estate became a legal fight. The Sachs children’s aunts alleged that Nina Lifshultz, one of Andra’s closest friends, had used a forged document to take control of the trust. Lifshultz’s attorneys denied the allegation. The dispute was eventually settled with Myles and Lifshultz placed in charge of the estate.¹² Myles has said that for the surviving siblings, Ashton “died when he killed his parents.”¹³ As of late 2022, he was dealing with kidney failure and seeking a transplant.¹⁴

Landon, paralyzed from the chest down by the shooting, later underwent major surgery for severe scoliosis caused by his spinal cord injury, using titanium screws and a flexible tether chosen to preserve his mobility.¹³ He took up tennis in late 2021 at JSerra Catholic High School and became the school’s first wheelchair tennis player, as well as the first wheelchair athlete in his county to compete against an able-bodied opponent in high school play.¹⁵ By early 2023 he was ranked as high as sixth nationally in junior wheelchair tennis and placed second at the USTA Junior National Wheelchair Championships.¹⁶ He committed to the University of Arizona on a Division 1 scholarship for wheelchair tennis, reported to be the first such scholarship awarded to a high school student in Orange County.¹⁷

Where Ashton Sachs Is Now

Ashton Sachs is incarcerated at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County, California, serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.¹⁸ No appeals or post-conviction legal developments have been publicly reported.

1
CBS News. 48 Hours Investigates Andra and Brad Sachs Murders
2
CBS News. Shadow of Death: 48 Hours Investigates the Murders of Andra and Brad Sachs
3
CBS News. Judge Throws the Book at Ashton Sachs for Senseless Murder of Parents
4
NBC Los Angeles. Ashton Sachs Shot Parents, Brother Paralyzed, Pleaded Guilty
5
ABC7 Chicago. San Juan Capistrano Slayings Investigation
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Orange County District Attorney. Man Indicted for Shooting Murder of Parents and Attempted Murder of Two Siblings
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Orange County Register. Judge Allows Ashton Sachs to Defend Himself Against Charges of Killing His Parents
8
Orange County District Attorney. Man Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole for Shooting Murder of Parents and Attempted Murder of Siblings
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People. Ashton Sachs Sentenced for Parents’ Murder
10
Orange County Register. Testimony Suggests Motive in Killings
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Orange County Register. Myles Sachs Takes Care of Business and Siblings
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CBS News. 48 Hours: Shadow of Death
13
Orange County Register. After Teen Kills Parents, Paralyzes Brother, Remaining Siblings Survive With Love
14
NBC Los Angeles. Group of Siblings Continues to Move Forward After Family Tragedy
15
Tennis.com. Landon Sachs Survived Unspeakable Tragedy and Is Now a Scholarship Wheelchair Tennis Player
16
ABC7. Landon Sachs, JSerra Catholic High School Wheelchair Tennis Player
17
CBS News Los Angeles. OC High School Athlete Gets a D1 Scholarship for Wheelchair Tennis
18
Los Angeles Times. Landon Sachs, Adaptive Tennis, JSerra High School