GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Two brothers who admitted to attacking their parents and trying to blow up their house will spend at least two decades in prison.
Chris and Cameron Ervin are back in the Gwinnett County Jail Monday evening waiting to be transferred to prison.
The brothers entered guilty pleas Monday. Their parents, who they tried to kill, pleaded for mercy, insisting what happened that September 2015 night was simply drug induced.
Christopher Ervin said he and his younger brother were both high on drugs when they tried to blow up their parents’ home by leaving the gas on and lighting candles. Their parents were asleep after the sons had spiked their drinks earlier in the evening.
"Am I redeemable? I believe so," Christopher Ervin told court Monday. "The facts in this case, that's me at my absolute worst."
Police said when the house didn't explode, the brothers went back into the home, beat their parents, repeatedly stabbed their dad and tried to suffocate their mom.
“I’m extremely regretful, remorseful, and just overall sorry beyond explanation for this situation,” Cameron Ervin said.
The parents escaped -- battered and bloodied -- and full of forgiveness.
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They asked the judge for the lightest sentence possible.
“I ask for help for them,” mother Yvonne Ervin told Channel 2’s Tony Thomas Monday evening.
“Being in that house that night. I saw Satan,” father Zachary Ervin said. “And I knew shortly after that that what happened to us wasn't our sons.”
The judge split the difference between what defense lawyers and prosecutors wanted, giving each son 20 years to serve in prison and another 30 on probation.
The younger brother goes to prison on his 19th birthday, saying in all this, he learned something.
“I realize how much I love them, and I realize how much they love me,” Cameron Ervin told the court.
Yvonne Ervin told the judge while legally she is a victim, she considers herself a mother and an advocate for her sons first.