Friday, April 17, 2026

Five Years Later, an Altadena Murder Case Returns to the Pasadena Courthouse

Robert Cotton, charged in the 2021 stabbing deaths of his mother and uncle, faces a pretrial hearing Friday

The man charged with killing his mother and uncle at their Altadena home in 2021 — an attack that a Zoom call made impossible to ignore — is scheduled to return to a Pasadena courtroom this week.

Robert Anderson Cotton, now 37, faces a pretrial hearing Friday, April 17, at 8:30 a.m. in Department B of the Pasadena Courthouse, 300 E. Walnut St. He has been held in Los Angeles County custody since his arrest, on $4.02 million bail, as the case moves through the courts more than five years after the killings.

Cotton is charged with two counts of murder in the March 22, 2021 stabbing deaths of his mother, Carol Anne Brown, Ph.D., 67, and her brother, Kenneth Wayne Preston, 69. The two were killed at the 3100 block of North Marengo Avenue in Altadena — a home they shared with Cotton. Both died of stab wounds. A knife was recovered at the scene.

Brown’s death shook the Pasadena City College community, where she had worked for more than 14 years. She served as co-coordinator of the college’s Black STEM Program. On a Monday afternoon in March 2021, she was on a remote Zoom call with a PCC colleague when the attack began. The colleague saw a man dragging another man into the living room and called 911, initially believing it to be a kidnapping. The stabbings themselves were not directly observed on the call.

When Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies from the Altadena Station arrived at approximately 2:45 p.m., they found Preston dead in the driveway and Brown dead inside the home. During the investigation, Cotton — who had allegedly fled in his mother’s Lexus SUV — returned to the residence on foot, identified himself as a resident, and was arrested.

Then-Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón described the case as one in which colleagues witnessed part of the attack on a Zoom call and summoned help — “unfortunately,” he said in a statement at the time, “by the time police arrived they discovered both victims.”

PCC President-Superintendent Erika Endrijonas confirmed Brown’s death in a message to the college community the following day. Brown, Endrijonas wrote, “was the victim of a violent crime where she and her brother lost their lives.” Colleagues remembered her as a dedicated mentor; Dr. Cynthia Olivo, then the college’s vice president of student services, recalled Brown as someone whose work with students was “so positive, uplifting and helpful.”

No motive for the killings has been publicly disclosed. The case is prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office; the lead investigating agency is the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. No trial date has been publicly announced.

The case number is GA109673.

Robert Anderson Cotton is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Pretrial hearing: Friday, April 17, 2026 | 8:30 a.m. | Department B | Pasadena Courthouse | 300 E. Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91101

The hearing will mark at least the fourth court appearance in the case since 2024, each without a trial date set. Preston’s death began in a driveway. Brown’s began on a Zoom call with a colleague.