Luke Starling is a teen killer from Texas who was convicted of the murder of his father with a crossbow
According to court documents Luke Starling was a drug addict who was homeless when his father Christopher Starling allowed him to live in his home. The relationship would end when Luke would fire a crossbow into the back of his father’s head killing him and then fled the home
Luke Starling would tell the jurors that the crossbow killing was a complete accident however the jury would not buy it and would convict him of murder
Luke Starling would be sentenced to life in prison without parole
Luke Starling Case
A Friendswood man was sentenced to life in prison Friday after killing his father with a crossbow in 2022.
Luke Michael Starling was 18 years old when he murdered his father, Christopher Starling.
During trial for his punishment, Luke told jurors there was no fight between him and his father and he was not mad when he shot his father in the back of the head with a crossbow.
The Galveston County District Attorney’s Office said Luke — who had a long history of drug abuse — moved to Friendswood to live with his dad at the end of August 2022. Luke was homeless until his father allowed him to stay with him, the DA’s office said.
Luke killed Christopher in September 2022. After killing his father, Luke ran away. Family members thought Luke may have overdosed so they went to his home to check on him. That’s when Christopher’s body was found, covered with blankets.
Luke had traveled to Lampasas County, which is about a four-hour drive from Friendswood. Investigators tracked him through cellphone records and once he was found, he confessed to killing his father saying, “I did it. I’m guilty.”
Luke told jurors that he planned on killing himself but wanted to know what it was like to live, knowing that he was going to die, the DA’s office said.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Ricque Davis said Luke “earned every day of a life sentence.”
Luke Starling News
A man has been sentenced to life in prison on Friday for murdering his father in a Friendswood home in September 2022, according to the Friendswood Police Department.
Luke Starling pleaded guilty to murder for killing Christopher Starling on Sept. 12, 2022, in the 400 block of Oak Vista Drive.
Friendswood PD arrested Luke the day after his father’s remains were found in his home.
Investigators are working with the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office to bring justice to this case.
Luke Starling Appeal
A man sentenced to life in prison Friday for killing his father with a crossbow filed papers Monday to appeal the decision, according to court records.
A jury Friday had sentenced Luke Michael Starling, 19, of Friendswood, to life in prison for the murder of his father, Christopher Todd Starling, Assistant District Attorney Brent Haynes said in a statement Tuesday.
Christopher Starling’s former in-laws found his remains under a pile of blankets in September 2022, according to the district attorney’s office. Removing the blankets revealed the head of a crossbow bolt protruding from his forehead, according to the district attorney’s office.
Christopher Starling had moved to Friendswood after divorcing the mother of his five children. Luke, his oldest son, moved in with him at the end of August 2022.
Luke Starling had a history of drug abuse beginning when he was 16 years old and he was homeless until his father took him in and began making plans to send him to a rehab facility, according to the district attorney’s office.
Texas Ranger Derek Leitner tracked Luke Starling to Lampasas County through his cell phone records. During an interview in Lampasas with Friendswood detective Nick McCanless, Starling confessed by stating “I did it. I’m guilty,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Starling pleaded guilty and chose to have the jury assess punishment.
“He shot his father in the back of the head with a crossbow,” Haynes said in a statement. “Starling told the jury that on the day he murdered his father, there was no fight between the two, verbal or physical, and he was not mad at his father.”
In closing arguments, Chief Assistant District Attorney Ricque Davis told the jury the community would never be safe from a man who murdered his own father, and that the defendant “earned every day of a life sentence.”
