Man charged in father’s beating death over whiskey
A northern Michigan man charged in his Royal Oak father’s bludgeoning death allegedly told officers he fatally beat him with a baseball bat after his father confiscated his last bottle of alcohol.
Joel Andrew Wheatley. 51, was arraigned Thursday in Emmet County’s 90th District Court on charges that include open murder, identity theft and unlawful driving away of a motor vehicle.
The Petoskey man was denied bond, and a preliminary examination in the case was set for June 3, the Petoskey NewsReview reported. It wasn’t clear if Wheatley had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
He’s accused of fatally beating his father, Jack
Wheatley of Royal Oak, on May 11 or May 12 in a Petoskey home where Joel Wheatley lived but which his father owned.
Officers found Jack Wheatley dead in the home’s kitchen, with apparent blunt-force trauma wounds to his head and face, after an out-of-state relative called 911 requesting a well-being check on father and son, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Police said they found a wooden baseball bat and a knife near the body, while
Joe Wheatley was found seated in a chair, heavily intoxicated with a rifle on the floor next to him.
Wheatley told officers he killed his father by repeatedly striking him from behind with a wooden baseball bat because the elder man had taken away his last bottle of alcohol, the affidavit states.
After that killing, he had stolen his father’s wallet and used his father’s credit card to buy two bottles of whiskey, the document says Wheatley told officers.