MONTICELLO – A 48-year-old Neversink man was convicted of killing his father following a five-day jury trial in Sullivan County Court.
The jury found Drew Botsford guilty of shooting his father, Lloyd Botsford, 71, in the head with a .22 caliber rifle after the two had an argument at their home at 39 Bradley Road on the evening of October 8, 2023.
The younger Botsford had grabbed the rifle from his father’s bedroom closet, found a bullet in his father’s top drawer, squatted down by the bathroom door, aimed and pulled the trigger.
The father was sitting on a love seat in the living room watching a football game when his son fired one shot that struck his father in the head.
Drew Botsford, who was unemployed, fled the house with over $1,600 in cash, grabbed his mother’s groceries and put them in the back of his aunt’s vehicle. He then asked his uncle for keys to the vehicle, which was denied, so he hid in the aunt’s car not knowing that he locked himself inside.
The next morning, he broke through a back window with a tire iron and entered his aunt’s house.
Police were notified and took Botsford into custody and while being interviewed, admitted to getting into an argument, grabbing the gun and shooting his father in the head.
DNA evidence analyzed pointed to Drew Botsford.
District Attorney Brian Conaty said the murder was “a culmination of bad choices that he has made during the course of his life.”
The DA said, “Despite all of the attempts and opportunities given to the defendant to rehabilitate himself and to forego criminal activity he squandered them. Instead, each time he chose himself and a life influenced by substance abuse.”
Lloyd Botsford was “a loving husband, loving father, and a friend to many people across Sullivan County” and supported his son in his “efforts to strip himself away from the demons of addiction.”
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