A 25-year-old man in Wisconsin may spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his 74-year-old grandmother, who was shot to prevent her from calling the police after discovering his gun.
According to court records reviewed by Law&Crime, Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Arthur Melvin III sentenced Sean C. Couture to 26 years to life in a state correctional facility for the murder of Nancy Lovejoy in 2024.
Couture reached an agreement with prosecutors, pleading guilty to one count of first-degree intentional homicide with a domestic abuse modifier. In exchange for the plea, the additional charges of failing to comply with an officer and operating a firearm while intoxicated were dropped. Melvin credited Couture with 388 days of time served.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers from the Waukesha Police Department responded to a call about shots being fired in the 200 block of Douglass Avenue, about 20 miles west of Milwaukee, around 8:32 p.m. on August 25, 2024.
Couture’s parents, who were on vacation out of state, called 911 after receiving a call from their son, who said, “It’s over, it’s over” and stated that he had just shot his grandmother and was about to shoot himself.
When the cops arrived, Couture had locked himself inside the house. Using a drone, police discovered what appeared to be the body of an adult female lying motionless on the stairs leading to the basement. A rescue team waited for Couture to enter a bedroom before entering the house and extracting the victim, later identified as Lovejoy. She was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but she was pronounced dead due to multiple gunshot wounds to the body.
Police used a K-9 unit to enter the home and detain Couture, who had a blood alcohol content of 0.45, more than five times the legal limit for driving. Police discovered a handgun and multiple magazines inside the home, as well as a receipt indicating Couture purchased the firearm on June 4, 2024.
At the hospital, Couture agreed to speak with police, asking about his grandmother and repeatedly “referencing her being shot, despite officers only telling him, to that point, that his grandmother had been injured and died.”
According to police, Couture then admitted to shooting his grandmother.
“The Defendant ultimately admitted that he and his grandmother began arguing the night of August 25, 2024 after she discovered the firearm in his room,” according to the petition. “The Defendant stated that he believed his grandmother was going to call the police about the Defendant having a gun, so he shot her just outside the side door to the residence. The Defendant then admitted to dragging [the victim’s] body inside the house and onto the basement stairs where she was discovered because he did not want to leave her body outside.”
Couture also admitted to consuming alcohol prior to and following the shooting.
