|
NEENAH - Anger over a grounding
may have led a 16-year-old boy to strangle his father,
according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.
Zachary B. Reid of Neenah was
charged as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide,
which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Reid had kept a journal in
which he threatened to "kill his father, remove his
teeth and burn the body," Winnebago County District
Attorney Christian Gossett said Tuesday.
A judge ordered Reid held on
$300,000 cash bond. A preliminary hearing was set for Oct.
13.
Police had contact with Reid
at least eight times since May stemming from incidents
ranging from vandalism and drug thefts to threats to kill,
maim and cut out the tongues of people who angered him,
Gossett said.
"We feel he is
definitely a serious risk to the community," he said.
Reid's attorney, Kevin Musolf,
said his client had no criminal record and hadn't been
arrested for any of the offenses mentioned by the
prosecution.
"There is more to this
case than what is included in the criminal complaint,"
Musolf said.
The complaint gave the
following account:
Reid told friends on Sunday
he strangled his father from behind and put the body in the
trunk of his father's car. He then parked the car at an
elementary school.
Acting on a tip, police found
the body of 53-year-old Brett R. Reid wrapped in a blanket
in the car. A plastic bag over his head was secured by a
belt around his neck.
Zachary Reid told
investigators his father had pulled a knife on him so he
placed his father in a choke hold. Brett Reid instantly
dropped the knife, but Zachary Reid maintained the pressure,
intending to make his father pass out.
When he finally let go his
father was no longer breathing. The teen told police he
placed the bag over his father's head to catch any fluids
and used his father's belt to secure the bag.
The teen's mother told
investigators her son was upset because his father grounded
him after he was suspended from school last month. She said
she had never seen the two physically fight before but said
Zachary Reid was bigger than his father and occasionally
tried to intimidate him with his size.
The complaint lists Zachary
Reid as being 6-foot-1 and 142 pounds. He outweighed his
father, who endured a bout with cancer in the past, by
nearly 60 pounds, Gossett said.
|
