DA says Point Loma man murdered sister, shot their mom after Wi-Fi router was moved
Opening statements were delivered Monday in the trial of a man accused of shooting three of his family members at his Point Loma home, killing his sister and nephew, as well as seriously injuring his elderly mother.
William Bushey, 61, is charged with murder and attempted murder for the Aug. 21, 2024, shooting at his Zola Street home that killed his sister, Laurie Robinson, 61, and her son, Brett Robinson, 33. Bushey’s then-86-year-old mother, June Bushey, was shot in her chest and lost three fingers on her right hand from the gunfire, but survived.
Killings in Point Loma
Bushey had been living at the home with his mother for about 15 years when his sister moved in following a sudden separation from her husband. The shooting occurred nine days after Laurie Robinson moved in.
Deputy District Attorney Scott Pirrello told jurors Bushey had a history of acting hostile toward family members and that his sister’s abrupt presence in the home set him off, leading him to act out and her to fear for her safety.
The prosecutor said Laurie and her mother undertook several safety measures out of fear, such as removing knives from the home, changing the locks and finally, pursuing a restraining order against Bushey and taking steps to evict him.
Police were also called twice to the home to respond to apparent angry outbursts from Bushey, once after the knives were removed, and once after the locks were changed, which reportedly led Bushey to break off a doorknob in order to enter the house.
Responding officers determined no crimes had been committed; Bushey was not arrested on either occasion.
Hours before the killings, the internet was shut off in order to relocate the home’s Wi-Fi router from Bushey’s bedroom to his mother’s room, which Pirrello said prompted Bushey to angrily confront an AT&T technician at the house. Pirrello described Bushey as an isolated man who spent an inordinate amount of time alone playing computer games in his room, and the internet disconnection was potentially the final straw.
A short time later, Laurie was gunned down in the back patio and Brett Robinson — who texted a friend that he needed to go to the home because his uncle was acting “extra sketchy” — was shot in the kitchen.
June Bushey fled the home after she was shot, leaving a blood trail out of the house.
Bushey called 911 after the shooting and admitted to a dispatcher that he shot his sister and nephew. Officers responded to the home and found Bushey sitting on the front doorstep with his hands held in the air.
Deputy Public Defender Denis Lainez said that while his client is responsible for the killings, he is not guilty of murder because he was provoked by what the attorney described as a dedicated campaign by Bushey’s sister to oust him from the home.
The defense attorney said Bushey had lived peacefully with his mother for 15 years, but in a short time after his sister’s arrival, he was faced with the sudden prospect of homelessness while suffering from ongoing physical and mental health issues.
Lainez said that by repeatedly characterizing her brother as an aggressive, dangerous person, Laurie convinced their mother and other family members to eject him from the home “like he was just some inanimate object, some piece of trash that you could just throw out of the house.”
Portions of Lainez’s opening statements to the jury were delivered as a monologue from Bushey’s perspective, in which the attorney described Bushey’s feelings of inadequacy and isolation, and his sister’s treatment of him as “less than nothing.”
Lainez told jurors that amid the mounting pressures affecting Bushey, he committed the shooting while “full of emotion and free of thought” and that the killings represented “60 years of emotion, anger and resentment [that] exploded into seconds of unthinkable violence.”
