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OREGON CITY, Or. -- A Lake Oswego man with a history of mental illness who stabbed his mother to death as she slept pled guilty to murder Tuesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court.
Chad Emerson Brix, 53, pled guilty except for insanity to Murder in the Second Degree. He was sent to the Oregon State Hospital and will be under the jurisdiction of the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board.
Chad Brix was diagnosed with schizophrenia more than 15 years ago. He suffered from paranoid delusions, impulsivity and auditory hallucinations and had been hospitalized several times.
He killed Virginia Brix, 78, at his home on Feb. 2, 2024.
Brix texted his father that day stating he had killed Virginia Brix. Police responded to his Lake Oswego home and discovered the woman’s bloody body covered with blankets. She had been stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife. Brix told police he woke up in the early morning and believed his mother had drugged him, so he stabbed her.
Virginia Brix had driven from her Seattle-area home the day before to visit Chad Brix. She was appointed as her son’s legal guardian in 2022. She called him daily and visited him frequently to check on his well-being, according to family members who spoke in court on Tuesday.
Todd Brix, Chad Brix’s brother, said Virgina Brix, a woman of limited means, was devoted to Chad Brix, paying his rent, financially supporting him and spending around $460,000 on him over the years.
Todd Brix said that when his mother visited Chad she would leave if she sensed she was in danger. He and his mother had a code word she would use with him if she felt threatened by Chad.
Brix’s daughters and ex-wife told Circuit Judge Ann Lininger that they lived lives filled with anxiety and fear due to his irrational, unpredictable behavior and his potential for violence. A random comment could send him into paranoid delusions.
“He was at war with his own mind,” one of his daughters said.
They also recalled Brix as a good father and husband prior to his mental breakdown. He was a civil engineer and once owned a successful construction company, but his mental illness led to divorce, bankruptcy and alienation from his family.
Chad Brix briefly and tearfully addressed his family. “I sincerely apologize. I didn’t mean to do it. I’m so sorry,” he said.
Deputy District Attorneys Jeff Nitschke and Randi Hall prosecuted the case.
Clackamas County Circuit Court case 24CR06110