Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Pretrial Hearing Set Tuesday for Altadena Man Charged in 2021 Double Stabbing

Robert Cotton faces two murder counts in the deaths of his mother, a Pasadena City College employee, and uncle

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Pasadena Courthouse for Robert Cotton, the Altadena man charged with fatally stabbing his mother and uncle at their shared home nearly five years ago.

Cotton, 36, faces two counts of murder with an allegation of using a knife as a deadly and dangerous weapon in the March 22, 2021, deaths of Carol Anne Brown, 67, and her brother Kenneth Wayne Preston, 69, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The hearing is scheduled in Department B of the courthouse at 300 E. Walnut St.

The case gained attention because a colleague of Brown’s partially witnessed the attack during a Zoom call with other Pasadena City College employees. The colleague saw a man dragging another man into the living room and called 911 to report a possible kidnapping, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies from the Altadena Station responded to the residence in the 3100 block of North Marengo Avenue at approximately 2:45 p.m. that day. They found Preston dead in the driveway and Brown dead inside the home, both from stab wounds, according to the coroner’s office.

Cotton pleaded not guilty to the charges and is presumed innocent until proven guilty. He has remained in custody since his arrest the day of the killings, with bail set at $4.02 million, according to booking records.

Brown was a longtime Pasadena City College employee who had worked at the school for nearly 15 years. She served as co-coordinator of PCC’s Black STEM Program, which provides opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to Black and African-American students through coaching and internships, according to the college.

“Yesterday afternoon our PCC family suffered a terrible loss,” PCC President-Superintendent Erika Endrijonas said in a statement at the time. “Dr. Carol Brown, who most recently served as a co-coordinator of the Black STEM program, was the victim of a violent crime where she and her brother lost their lives.”

Authorities have not publicly disclosed a motive for the killings.

He was taken into custody after returning to the scene on foot while deputies were still investigating, identifying himself as a resident of the home, according to sheriff’s officials.

District Attorney George Gascón, in a statement when charges were filed in March 2021, called it “a horrific case in which the mother’s work colleagues witnessed part of the attack while on a Zoom call and called the authorities.”

Cotton has remained at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility and Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles since his arrest.