scipio-USMC wrote:
He had no reason to lie and say she woke up and called down to him. That part of his confession rings true.
Imagine you wake up at 3 am, hearing your brother telling you "it's okay, I was cleaning the gun, and it went off by accident". Dawn is supposed to have said "oh ok" and then went back to sleep. For me it's not a normal reaction.
First, cleaning a gun right in the middle of the night, especially at 3, is not common. It should have questioned Dawn much more than her simple "oh ok".
Second, didn't she find it strange to hear that her brother was cleaning his gun in the second floor ? Where ? In the TV room ? In the stairs ? He is supposed to clean them in his room, or the basement, or the garden, not in the middle of an uncommon place for this. Didn't Dawn find this strange ?
Third, if it went off by accident, on the second floor, the natural reaction of someone is to think "sh***, where did the bullet go", and you go down to see what happened or even laugh at your brother being so silly.
Then didn't she wonder why she was the only one to ask, and wake up, while the others who are on the floor where the sound comes from, are silent ? Wasn't she wondering how come their father did not go mad and went out of his bedroom yelling at Ronnie ? Frankly I don't buy that. There's something wrong with this.
How could you then explain the position of Ronald Sr in his bed ? If he was killed first, then he should be in his bed, under the cover, without any foot outside. On the other hand, this is a logical position if we consider the events I described.
As for the reason to lie about that, Ronnie could have had a good one.
If he says he wanted to kill his father first (and exclusively), he could cry on the supposed monster his father was, his brutality, and bla bla bla. He could make himself a victim this way, and that's what he did. Then all went wrong, he didn't want to kill the entire family, but he was pushed by something he couldn't control, but oh God, he loved them so much bouuuuh bouuuuuh

...
Now on the other hand, if he admits he killed Dawn first (if it ever happened this way), all the crap he said above is not valid anymore. Killing Dawn first would be the proof he intended to kill them all from the beginning, which would make him a brutal mean person, and not a victim brutalized by his father on whom he wanted to take revenge.