Philip Badowski, 22, whose chainsaw massacre murdering of his parents was covered here December 10, 2004, entered a surprise guilty plea to the murder of his parents and dismembering of his mother with a chainsaw today in Tennessee. Police arrived when he was in the process of dismembering his father. Badowski said God told him to kill his parents. A state psychiatric evaluation showed Badowski was competent for trial.

Badowski was in court to make a routine appearance when he made the surprise guilty plea and was then sentenced to life in prison.

I'd think the death penalty -- at the end of a chainsaw blade -- would be appropriate justice.

WVLT

The hearing was to have been a routine appearance at which lawyers for 22-year-old Philip Badowski of Hixson would argue that evidence against him was tainted by an illegal search.

But Badowski changed his plea, stating he was guilty of fatally shooting his parents and using a chainsaw to dismember his mother's body.

Criminal Court Judge Doug Meyer sentenced Badowski to life in prison without parole.

The public defender representing Philip Badowski was prepared to argue police failed to get a search warrant before finding the bodies of Chester "Chet" Badowski and his wife Christine Badowski in a locked bedroom.