And at the root of that belief is entitlement. She made me do it, I just got so angry etc etc. If he was able to psychologically face the enormity of what had happened one of two other things may have resulted – he would have got help for Gabby, if he had knocked her off a Cliff during a tussle or hit her and hurt her. Or he would have killed himself when he realised what he had done and was overcome by the reality of that. But the fact that he has gone on the run speaks to him having justified in his mind his actions and that it was not his fault. It was something that he got caught up in, where he was not to blame for his reaction or actions and he deserves to be free. His parents obviously bought into this narrative too. And this did not ‘escalate quickly’ it was an ongoing upward spiral of abuse and toxicity and nothing Gabby could have done would have made her deserve to be killed. Even if she had taken him up the nature trail, pointed a gun at him and tried to shoot him. It is a rare case when someone quacks like a duck and then isn’t one. The only qualifier might be if Brian had the poor mental health that people have been talking about, but if his parents are well off enough to help him escape, then they could have hired good defense counsel. You seem concerned that an innocent person might be wrongly imprisoned, but it seems that, as a white male from a well-off family, with access to good legal resources, had he gone for help for Gabby if it had been an accident he would be more inclined to be in the group that manages to avoid the consequences of their actions in court, where the evidence is not clear cut.