Ronald Page rejected a plea deal on Friday, paving the way for a June trial on charges that he shot and killed his step-son, Nicholas Ray Satcher, in Jan. 2011.
Prosecutors had offered to drop all other charges in exchange for a plea to guilty of voluntary manslaughter while armed, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffery Ragsdale said.
Page, 58, is charged with second-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and three firearm possession charges in connection with Satcher’s death.
Satcher, 22, died from a shotgun blast to the chest in Jan. 2011.
Page has been released from DC Jail and ordered to remain under high-intensity supervision since his preliminary hearing in Jan. 2011. He is not allowed near his home, nor can he have contact with his wife or sons.
At the time of the incident, Page admitted that he shot Satcher, but insisted it was an accident.
At Page’s preliminary hearing last year, Page said he had only planned to shoot at the ceiling in order to scare Satcher and Page’s biological son, Adrian Page. But when the two boys “lunged at him,” Page said he shot Satcher.
Homicide Detective Jeff Clay, who testified at the preliminary hearing, said Page had confronted his younger son about missing school. When Page attempted to attack his son with a chair, Satcher intervened to defend his step-brother, Clay said.
Satcher’s brother, Craig, and mother, were both in the home at the time of the shooting. After taking the gun from Page, his wife called the police at Page’s request, prosecutors say.
A trial readiness hearing has been scheduled for May 17, 2013, and Page’s trial is set to begin June 3, 2013.
