Moorpark Man Pleads Guilty To Murdering Brother-In-Law

Tuesday May 14, 2024

(Photo courtesy VCSO)

     Updated--A Moorpark man has pleaded guilty to second degree murder in the shooting death of his brother-in-law in January of 2020.

     71-year-old Elsworth Cadle had been facing a retrial in September after the jury in his first trial earlier this year failed to reach a verdict on a first degree murder charge.

     Instead, Tuesday prosecutors allowed Cadle to plea guilty second degree murder and admit a special allegation that he used a gun to shoot 64-year-old Mark Milton in the head as Milton sat in the driver's seat of a U-Haul truck in the Public Storage facility on Los Angeles Avenue in Moorpark.

     Milton was helping Cadle's estranged wife and daughter move into their own apartment after they had been staying with Cadle's sister and Milton.

     After killing Milton, Cadle used a rented car to flee and was the subject of a massive search that ended hours later when they found him in a parked vehicle near Moorpark College.

     The gun was found in the rental car.

     Cadle went on trial earlier this year but it ended with a mistrial after the jury deadlocked 10-2 for conviction of first degree murder.

     A new trial was set for September but then Cadle decided to plead guilty to the second degree offer.

     He faces 25-years-to-life in prison when sentenced on June 20th.

     Cadle remains in jail with no chance of release.