BROWNSTOWN — A Jackson County jury has found 29-year-old Robert Walter Dean Fox guilty of murder in the shooting death of his father, Larry D. Fox, after five hours of deliberation.
The verdict follows a dramatic trial in which the defendant discarded months of denials to admit on the witness stand that he killed his father in a fit of rage.
The seven day trial, presided over by Jackson Circuit Judge Richard W. Poynter, concluded after testimony that peeled back the layers of a deeply fractured family life on a Norman farm.
The final phase of the trial took a stunning turn when Robert Fox took the stand as the defense’s primary witness. For over nine months from the date of the shooting on Jan. 30, 2025, to his arrest in April and throughout the preparation for trial Fox had maintained his innocence, claiming an unknown assailant had shot both him and his father.
However, just weeks before the trial began, Fox admitted the truth to his defense attorney, Bradley Johnson. In open court, Johnson expressed his own frustration to the jury, revealing he had been “lied to over and over again” by his own client.
On the stand, Robert Fox described the fatal encounter. He testified that an argument over his half-brother, Doug Fox, escalated until his 76-year-old father allegedly insulted Robert’s mother and reached for a weapon. Fox claimed he “lost control” and shot his father in the back.
“I just made up my mind that I had to stick to it,” Fox testified, explaining his lengthy cover-up as a desperate attempt to stay with his children for as long as possible.
While the prosecution contended that Fox was motivated by financial gain and control of the family farm, the defense attempted to paint a different picture.
Fox described his life as “traditional” and “simple,” arguing he had no need for the wealth the prosecution suggested he coveted.
He testified about a shared vision with his father to revamp the farm into a productive slaughterhouse and homestead.
Fox admitted that the gunshot wound to his own arm, originally blamed on a mystery shooter, was actually self-inflicted. He testified he stood behind a barn frame and instructed a friend, Harlan Deaton, to shoot his protruding arm to make his story more believable.
The defendant’s wife, Rebecca Fox, testimony provided detailed years of tension on the property, specifically regarding the defendant’s half-brother, Doug Fox. She described multiple instances of being shot at by someone the family believed to be Doug, which created a climate of fear and “strained” the relationship with her in-laws.
Despite these defense attempts to categorize the crime as voluntary manslaughter arguing Fox acted under “sudden heat”, the jury ultimately sided with the prosecution’s charge of murder.
After closing arguments the case was handed to the jury. Despite the defense’s strategy to argue for the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter based on Robert’s own testimony that he “lost control” during a heated argument, the jury ultimately rejected the claim of “sudden heat” and he was found guilty of murder.
Robert Fox remains in custody at the Jackson County Jail. He faces a sentencing range of 45 to 65 years in the Indiana Department of Correction. A sentencing date has been set for for April 7th.
