STAFF REPORTS

Officials with the Alabama Department of Corrections have confirmed today that Brent Springford Jr. is dead.

Officials said Springford died Sunday night at Brookwood Medical Center after he was found unresponsive in his cell.

Springford pleaded guilty to capital murder for the 2004 brutal murders of his parents Brent and Charlotte Springford, former owners of Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co., in Luverne.

He was sentenced to life without parol in December 2008.

According to Journal archives, during Springford’s trial, jurors heard a confession from him in which he admitted using an ax handle and a knife to kill his parents on Thanksgiving Day in 2004.

Springford said he reacted after his father threatened to sell the home in Colorado, he had purchased for his son’s use.

DOC officials said the cause of the death is unknown, pending autopsy results, but that no foul play is suspected.