Prosecutors said a fight over a moved Wi-Fi router came after days of rising fear inside the San Diego home.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A 61-year-old Point Loma man was sentenced to life in prison without parole after prosecutors said he used a hidden shotgun to kill his sister and nephew and critically wound his elderly mother during a family dispute in August 2024.

William Bushey received two life without parole terms plus 82 years after a San Diego jury convicted him in January of two counts of first-degree murder, premeditated attempted murder and elder abuse with a firearm. The case drew sharp attention because prosecutors said the violence followed nine days of growing tension inside the home, where family members had already called police twice and were preparing to evict him. The sentence closes the trial phase, but the family damage described in court remains raw.

Prosecutors said Bushey had lived for about 15 years with his mother, June Bushey, at the family home on Zola Street in Point Loma. His sister, Laurie Robinson, moved into the house after a sudden separation from her husband. The shooting came nine days later, on Aug. 21, 2024. Deputy District Attorney Scott Pirrello told jurors that Bushey had become increasingly hostile after Robinson arrived. Family members removed knives from the home, changed the locks and began seeking legal steps to force him out, according to trial testimony. Police were called twice during those nine days for disturbance reports, but officers did not make an arrest because the reported conduct did not amount to a crime. Hours before the shootings, the home internet was shut off so the Wi-Fi router could be moved from Bushey’s bedroom to his mother’s room, prosecutors said, a move that set off another confrontation.

According to the district attorney’s office, Bushey confronted family members about the internet, then went into his bedroom and pulled out a shotgun he had bought in 2012 and kept secret. Prosecutors said he loaded it to maximum capacity, took extra shells and went looking for his family. He fired six rounds as his mother and sister fled toward the back patio. Laurie Robinson, 61, was killed there. Her son, Brett Robinson, 33, had come to the home after texting a friend that his uncle was acting “extra sketchy,” prosecutors said, and he was shot in the kitchen. June Bushey survived after being shot in the chest and hand. Court records and prosecutors said she lost most of her right hand and suffered a wound to her upper abdomen that missed her heart by centimeters. After the shooting, prosecutors said, she ran from the house leaving a blood trail outside.

The evidence described in court painted a picture of a household sliding into fear before the attack. Pirrello said Bushey kept mostly to himself, spent much of his time playing computer games in his room and did not contribute to the household. The prosecution argued that he blamed his mother and sister as he faced the prospect of losing his place in the home. Defense lawyer Denis Lainez did not dispute that Bushey was the shooter. Instead, he told jurors his client acted while overwhelmed by emotion, anger and resentment after what the defense described as a campaign to remove him from the house. That argument did not persuade jurors, who convicted Bushey of first-degree murder and found true special circumstance allegations tied to multiple killings. Those findings made a life without parole sentence all but certain under California law.

The case also raised questions about warning signs and what the family and police could do before the bloodshed. Trial accounts said Robinson and June Bushey took several safety steps after Bushey’s behavior worsened. They removed knives, changed locks, planned to install a surveillance system and were moving toward a restraining order and eviction process. Even so, prosecutors said the family did not know he had a shotgun. Police had responded twice to the house, once after knives were removed and again after a lock change reportedly led Bushey to break off a doorknob to get inside. Officers concluded no arrestable offense had occurred. Those details gave the trial a wider context beyond the final burst of violence, showing how a series of troubling events fell short of triggering a criminal intervention before the killings.

At sentencing, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said the attack showed the deep harm caused by violence inside a home. Stephan said Bushey was “savage and ruthless” in the way he hunted down his own family. Superior Court Judge Joan Weber, before imposing sentence, said the two people killed had lost their lives “for no reason at all.” The hearing also included victim impact statements from surviving relatives. Laurie Robinson’s sons, Kyle and Ryan Robinson, addressed their uncle in court. NBC San Diego reported that both said they forgave him. Kyle Robinson said the family would have helped Bushey if he had accepted it and told him that no one would have let him become homeless. June Bushey also spoke and asked her son to turn around and look at her. Reports from the hearing said he did not turn and did not make a statement.

Bushey called 911 after the shootings and told a dispatcher he had shot his sister and nephew, according to trial reporting. Officers who arrived found him seated on the front doorstep with his hands in the air. Those details, along with the shotgun, shell evidence and injury testimony, helped prosecutors build a case centered on planning and pursuit rather than a brief chaotic struggle. That distinction mattered because the jury had to decide whether the killings were deliberate enough to support first-degree murder and whether the attack on June Bushey was premeditated attempted murder. Prosecutors argued that Bushey’s actions after the internet dispute, including arming himself with extra shells and chasing fleeing relatives, showed clear intent. Jurors agreed, rejecting the defense claim that he was too emotionally flooded to think through what he was doing.

The sentence leaves no hearing on release ahead for Bushey. With the verdict entered and the punishment imposed, the next formal milestones in the case would come only if he seeks post-conviction review or an appeal through the California courts. For now, the case stands as one of the most disturbing family killings in recent San Diego court memory, rooted in long building tension and ending in irreversible loss inside a house where relatives had been trying, in the days before the attack, simply to make themselves safe.

Author note: Last updated March 25, 2026.