The son of a banker who drowned his alcoholic father in a baptism-style exorcism has been found guilty.
Jack Callahan, now 22, was found guilty of manslaughter after being charged with murder in 2021, following an eight-day trial and 25 hours of deliberation.
Callahan was on trial for the murder of his father Scott, 57, who was found by police floating in a pond outside Duxbury, about 30 miles from Boston, in June 2021.
He faces up to 20 years in prison, under Massachusetts law, and is scheduled to appear in court next Friday, May 3.
The then 19-year-old was bringing his father home from a Boston bar when his mother, Wendy, called to tell him that she would not accept her ex-husband in their $1.5 million home in Duxbury, and the young man told her He asked his Uber driver to come with him. Stop by the pond around midnight.
Jack Callahan (pictured crying in 2021), now 22, was found guilty of manslaughter after being charged with murder in 2021, following an eight-day trial and 25 hours of deliberation.
Callahan was on trial for the murder of his father Scott, 57 (pictured), who was found by police floating in a pond outside Duxbury, about 30 miles from Boston, in June 2021.
Police found Scott at Island Creek Pond in Crooker Memorial Park, where Callahan faces up to 20 years in prison under Massachusetts law and is scheduled to appear in court next Friday, May 3.
His father had been receiving treatment for alcoholism at a Hopkinton facility before checking himself out and heading to the Boston bar.
Callahan told police at the time that his banker father was possessed by a demon called ‘Dirty Dan’ that he thought could be destroyed through baptism.
He grabbed his father and repeatedly submerged his head under water, telling police officers: “I left him there to decide: you can come to heaven with me or you can come to hell.” I think he chose hell.
Plymouth Deputy District Attorney Shanan Buckingham said at Callahan’s 2021 arraignment: ‘He indicated that the victim had been punching him in the face.
‘He went on to state that in this incident at the pond, he believed he was baptizing his father.
‘He described holding his father in the pond face up as if he were a baby, continually dunking the father’s head in the water four to eight times, and raising his head when the father began to cough and choke. above.
And then, when the father began to fight and hit him, he would push his head into the water.
“He did it until his father could no longer fight or float.”
Jack Callahan, 22, has been tried for the murder of his father Scott during an ‘exorcism’. Police said Callahan went to a bar in Boston on Sunday night to pick up his father, Scott Callahan, 57, who was not supposed to be drinking.
Jack Callahan, 22, is pictured to the left of his father Scott alongside his mother Wendy and two brothers Will and Charlie in 2016. The parents divorced when Jack allegedly murdered his father in June 2021.
Wendy Callahan with her sons Jack, Will and Charlie one year before Scott’s death
Wendy Callahan with her sons Jack and Will at a birthday dinner in 2019
The family lived in this $1.5 million, five-bedroom home outside of Duxbury.
His mother, Wendy, called the police saying her son was having a mental health episode and that her ex-husband was missing.
“The mother indicated that the defendant had not exhibited this behavior before and had no history of mental illness,” Buckingham said.
Police then called an ambulance after finding Callahan “excited and distressed,” hyperventilating and passing out.
He told them that his father hit him and that he didn’t know where he was: ‘He’s missing. I do not know what happened. I fainted.’
Scott Callahan (pictured in the undated photo on his obituary page) drank heavily. His son had gone to look for him at a bar the night of the alleged murder.
Scott Callahan had been receiving treatment for alcoholism at a facility in Hopkinton before checking out and heading to a Boston bar on his last night.
Officers attempted to perform CPR on the Colorado State University graduate before he was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, where he was pronounced dead.
Scott Callahan in an undated photo. He was a senior vice president at Texas Capital Bank and had an “extensive career in finance.”
He eventually directed police to Crooker Memorial Park, where officers found Scott in Island Creek Pond.
Officers attempted to perform CPR on the Colorado State University graduate before he was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, where he was pronounced dead.
The teenager was arrested the next day and cried in court as he pleaded not guilty at the first hearing of 2021.
Callahan’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, asked the judge to send the teen to Bridgewater State Hospital for a mental health evaluation, warning that he was a danger to himself, but the judge denied it.
According to Buckingham, Callahan held his father in the pond face up as if he were a baby and continually dipped his head into the water four to eight times.
Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan heard the case
The public gallery was packed when the trial began on Friday.
“He’s a very nice young man,” Reddington said, “he comes from a wonderful family.”
‘My client was worried about his father, knowing he would be drinking and knowing he shouldn’t be.
“I was going to try to get him back to where he should be.”
His mother told the court that he had been living with a brother in Colorado and had to leave his job in the logging industry after injuring his back before returning to Duxbury to live with his mother.
According to Scott Callahan’s obituary, he was a senior vice president at Texas Capital Bank and had an “extensive career in finance.”