Inset: Summer Coughran (Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office). Background: The area near where Coughran shot and killed her father in Albuquerque, N.M. (Google Maps).
A New Mexico woman is facing significant prison time after admitting to shooting and killing her father earlier this year.
On Thursday, Summer Coughran, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of murder over the January death of 65-year-old Kirk Coughran.
The admission is the penultimate major event in the case where the defendant initially claimed she acted in self-defense.
On Jan. 20, officers with the Albuquerque Police Department arrived at the Coughran family home near Saguaro Street and Wildfire Road in northwest Albuquerque in response to a shooting.
In a 911 call at around 3 a.m. that night, the defendant said she shot her father, according to an arrest report obtained by Us Weekly.
Police found the man dead, and investigators determined he had been dead for at least 15 hours before their arrival.
The defendant, for her part, first claimed her father had attacked her — immediately precipitating the fatal gun violence that she swore was in self-defense. As the woman's story continued, she said her father had actually been abusing her for most of her life.
Police, however, soon came to doubt Summer Coughran's version of events due to inconsistencies in her account. Investigators saw a major red flag when the defendant could not describe any of the would-be life-long abuse she claimed to have suffered.
The defendant also failed to describe what had happened that night that caused her to fear for her life.
Authorities also said the woman's narrative did not match evidence found on the scene, but they did not elaborate on those apparent discrepancies. Amid the ensuing investigation, law enforcement learned Summer Coughran had been the subject of prior police reports involving her family. That is, the daughter was the alleged aggressor and the father the alleged victim — though Kirk Coughran declined to press charges in those instances.
One such report claimed Summer Coughran suffered from schizophrenia and may stopped taking prescribed medication.
In December 2024, the defendant was charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer. Then, within days of that incident, another family member was granted a restraining order after Summer Coughran allegedly threatened them with violence.
Still, Summer Coughran maintained her self-defense claim for some time, with her attorneys arguing the theory in court, according to Albuquerque Fox affiliate KRQE. The defendant was denied bail in April and was slated to go on trial for her father's murder in early 2027.
Now, the woman will instead be sentenced early next year.
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