Man Gets Life In Prison For Grisly Killing Of Teen Cousin

A Bristol Township man will spend life in prison for killing and attempting to sexually assault his teen cousin last spring.

Colin Haag, 21, pleaded guilty on Thursday afternoon before Bucks County President Judge Wallace Bateman to first-degree murder, attempted rape, aggravated assaulted and offenses related to the brutal death of his 14-year-old cousin Autumn Bartle in the Croydon home they lived with their family on Friday, March 30, 2018.

Bateman sentenced Haag to life behind bars plus an additional 33 and a half to 67 years, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.

Due to the fact Haag pleaded guilty, prosecutors did not move forward with a request that Haag face the death penalty.

Haag stabbed Autumn as many as 150 times and shot her in the head with her father’s handgun when no one else was home. He also was charged with attempting to sexually assault the teen.

Authorities said that Bartle’s mother arrived to the home on Sycamore Avenue and found her daughter unconscious and suffering from numerous lacerations and a gunshot wound.

Bartle was taken to St. Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia and succumbed to her injuries several days after the attack.

Police made note in filings that there were clear signs of a struggle in the home’s bathroom. Bloody handprints located outside the bathroom window made it “apparent that Autumn Bartle, with bloodied hands, had attempted to climb out of the window and escape, but was unsuccessful,” detectives said.

Two bloody handprints found inside the bathroom led to police alleging that Haag had grabbed the window to close and lock it so his injured cousin could not escape.

Following the violent attack, Haag fled the Croydon home and disappeared. Hours later, he was noticed by a Bensalem officer patrolling along State Road. The officer approached Haag and the wanted man shot himself in the throat, according to authorities.

Haag’s bullet tore through the flesh near his throat and stopped by his ear, leaving non-life-threatening damage, police said.

Bensalem law enforcement found Bartle’s father’s .380 pistol in his pant pocket and found another stolen handgun from the home in Haag’s backpack, police said.

Haag, who fancied himself a rapper in online videos, was found with a spiral-bound notebook. Authorities have said the last page had the following text with a bloody palm print that matched Bartle’s DNA: “this is the last of Slim that’s all you get it’s the end 4 me.”

Haag lived in the basement of the home where Bartle and her parents resided.

In the courtroom at the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown Borough on Thursday, Bartle’s relatives did not use Haag’s name in victim impact statements that were submitted to the court.

“She will never be gone. Her magic has been spread,” Bartle’s mother Tiffany Larison said of her daughter. “She is loved and will never ever be gone.”

Michael Bartle Jr., Autumn’s father, said his daughter was loving and had an open mind.

“We are stronger because Autumn was strong. She was the strongest, bravest woman we have had the privilege to know,” the 14-year-old girl’s grandfather said, adding the family suffers due to her loss.

Haag turned down his chance to speak and offered an apology through his attorney.

In her statement in court, Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Schorn pointed out the many life events that Bartle will miss and her family will never experience.

“The one thing that every parent knows is that the purest joys of parenthood come from watching your children experience the joys of life,” she said. “It’s truly hard to comprehend the level of their loss.”

The judge said the brutal slaying was “almost indescribable.”

“The pain and fear that she must have suffered in her final moments is unimaginable.”