Police: Dispute with ex-tenant preceded slaying
Man accused of killing insurance agent held on $1 million bond.
Kettering police said Friday that a dispute between an insurance agent and a man now charged with murder led to a March slaying.
Joshua Dehart, 37, is charged in Kettering Municipal Court with aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery and felonious assault. He is accused of killing Barton Wilson, 74, of Barton Wilson Insurance.
Dehart pleaded not guilty and is being held in Montgomery County Jail on $1 million bond.
Kettering Police Public Information
Officer Joe Ferrell said Dehart was a former tenant and employee of Wilson, and it appears the incident started as a dispute between Dehart and the victim.
A statement of facts filed in the case says Wilson’s wallet, car keys and a cordless phone were taken from the scene. However, Ferrell said the slaying was not the result of a robbery.
The statement of facts also says police used DNA evidence as a tool to solving the case.
“DNA was extracted from the
shorts that Barton Wilson had on at the time of his death, and it was matched through CODIS to that of Joshua D. Dehart by the DNA Lab at the (Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation),” the statement of facts says.
Search warrants were issued in the case, the court document says.
“When first interviewed, Joshua Dehart agreed that his DNA should not be on the victim but he gave no reason that it was found there,” the statement of facts says. “BCI also analyzed Joshua Dehart’s cell phone records for the time of the incident and was able to place Joshua Dehart’s cell phone at the 2529 Wilmington Pike location at the time of the incident. When interviewed again and confronted with all of the evidence, Joshua Dehart confessed to hitting Barton Wilson in the head at least two times.”
Ferrell said he couldn’t release what type of weapon was used during the attack.