Neighbours shocked after son charged with father’s murder

PAINESVILLE, Ohio — A Painesville man has pleaded not guilty to killing his father in the family’s Sanford Street home Sunday, in a crime neighbors said they struggle to comprehend.

“You’re trying to figure out what happened and you still wish it hadn’t happened,” said neighbor Gary Mullins. “You want to wake up and tell yourself it was a dream, but it’s not going to happen now.”

Shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, Painesville police said they were called to a home in the 300 block of Sanford Street for a shooting.

Son accused of shooting and killing father

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Officers arrived at the scene and said they found Christopher J. Farmer, 67, dead.

His 23-year-old son, Christopher Paul Farmer, is charged with the murder.

On Monday evening, an atmosphere of solemnity hung over the neighborhood.

“It’s just silence,” Mullins said. “Like a numbness in the air.”

Neighbors find it hard to believe that the boy they watched grow up is now being accused of the unthinkable.

“They would have fights and stuff, he would go away, we wouldn’t see him for months, and then he would come back,” Mullins said. “I never thought something like that would happen.”

Christopher Farmer pleaded not guilty Monday to the murder of his father.

Police have not publicly commented on the motive for the crime.

But on Sanford Street, there’s a sense that there’s more to the story than investigators are saying.

“I think there’s probably some trouble,” Bonnie Sirotick said as she sat on the steps of her home near the family’s house.

But what could it have been?

Neighbors said the family was largely reserved and quiet people.

Now they are shocked by the ending, but wonder what they don’t know about what was going on behind the doors of the family home.

“You try to figure out what happened and you still wish it hadn’t happened,” Mullins said. “You want to wake up and tell yourself it was a dream, but that’s not going to happen now.”

Christopher Farmer remains in jail, held without bail.

He is due back in court next Monday.