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Michael Patrick Paton pleaded guilty to capital murder of multiple persons and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the 2021 shooting deaths of his wife and two children in Celina, Texas.

Paton and his wife, Tamara Jo Paton, lived with their children on Hickory Lane in Celina, a town in the northwest corner of Collin County about 40 miles north of Dallas. Tamara Jo Paton was 36, their daughter, Kyndle, was 14, and their son, Evan, was 13. Michael Paton was reported as 38 at the time of the killings and 39 at sentencing. A neighbor said the family kept to themselves and rarely attended community functions.

On the evening of Friday, February 19, 2021, Paton called 911 and told the dispatcher, "I just killed my whole family," according to the arrest warrant affidavit. He said the house was on fire, his wife was in a closet and did not appear to be breathing, and the children had not answered when he called for them. Paton said he and his wife had argued and that he "woke up and they were dead and the gun was in my hand." He said he did not know whether he had started the fire.

Celina officers were dispatched at about 7:20 p.m. on a shots fired call. While still on the phone, Paton walked out carrying a handgun as the house went up in flames. Officers directed him to place the gun in the bed of his truck and detained him. Celina firefighters entered the house and found Tamara, Kyndle and Evan Paton already dead of gunshot wounds.

There was never another suspect. Celina police questioned Paton that night after checking him for injuries. During the interview, he said he could not account for what happened and attributed the gap to memory problems. Investigators pressed him on how much he knew about the deaths and told him he was under arrest for capital murder. Collin County charged him with capital murder of multiple persons, and he was separately charged over the fire set at the family home. He was held in the Collin County jail.

Paton pleaded guilty on Friday, November 11, 2022, in Collin County district court, days before his trial was to begin. Defense lawyer Paul Johnson said Paton entered the plea against legal advice to spare the family a trial. Judge Jennifer Edgeworth presided, and Assistant Criminal District Attorneys Cresta Garland and Dewey Mitchell prosecuted the case. The life sentence was reported on the day of the plea, while the Collin County District Attorney's office dated it December 1, 2022. No motive was established beyond the affidavit's reference to an argument between the couple. No appeal has been reported.

The video is a police interview-room recording running about 129 minutes. It contains the interview itself and begins with a short narrated introduction naming the people involved.

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Part 2 of 3 of the recording described above.

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Part 3 of 3 of the recording described above.