PONTIAC, Mich. – No chance of a plea deal. There never was and never will be.
That's the message from Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper just days before 20-year-old Tucker Cipriano will go to trial for allegedly beating his parents and younger brother with a baseball bat last year in their Farmington Hills home. It was a vicious attack that left Tucker's father, Bob Cipriano, dead.
Through a letter, a relative requested the prosecutor consider reaching a plea deal in the hopes that the family could avoid the gory details of what happened the night Tucker Cipriano and co-defendant Mitchell Young allegedly burst into Tucker's parents' home wielding baseball bats.
Special section: Cipriano baseball bat beatings
Cooper won't say which family member tried to initiate discussions. However, she has made it clear there is absolutely no room to negotiate. The prosecutor released this statement which reads in part:
"We are on the eve of trial for two defendants that we allege committed one of the most brutal and heinous attacks that I have seen in my lengthy career ... if Tucker Cipriano wants to relieve the family of the trauma of trial, he and his co-defendant can plead guilty as charged to 1st degree murder."
Prosecutors argue Cipriano and Young were high on synthetic marijuana, known as K2, when they brutally attacked the family in April 2012. In addition to 1st degree murder, the two also are charged in the beating of Cipriano's mother and brother who both suffered serious injuries.