(Decatur County, IN) – A Decatur County man has been arrested in the shooting death of his father early Tuesday morning.
Twenty-eight-year-old Wyatt Taylor is being held without bond in the Decatur County Detention Center on one count of Murder.
He’s accused of shooting and killing 50-year-old Joshua Taylor at the victim’s home on the 3300 block of South County Road 60 West.
Decatur County Sheriff’s deputies went to the home around 12:05 a.m. as part of a welfare check after they received a call from a concerned family member.
According to court documents, Decatur County 911 received a call urging deputies to check on Joshua Taylor. His brother Jeremy told 911 he had been unable to reach his sibling and was concerned by a recent call made to the home.
In that call, Wyatt Taylor reportedly answered and smoke alarms were heard going off in the background. Wyatt told his uncle that Joshua was sleeping and couldn’t come to the phone. But a concerning call earlier from Wyatt to his uncle reportedly ended with Wyatt saying, “should I do it or should I go to bed?”
Wyatt let deputies into the home, where they found Joshua Taylor dead in a first-floor bedroom.
An autopsy conducted at the Hamilton County Morgue in Cincinnati determined he died from multiple gunshots to the head and neck.
Investigators say they found spent bullets in the bedroom and its bedding.
“Upstairs in a bedroom, on the floor next to a mattress, we located a firearm of the same caliber as the spent casings. There was an empty magazine in the handgun that had the precise capacity as the number of spent casings. Also next to the firearm was a wallet with Wyatt Taylor’s driver’s license and a hat which was later identified as having been worn by Wyatt Taylor in the evening leading up to the event. Further, next to the firearm was a box of ammunition of the same caliber and manufacturer as the spent casings with in excess of the magazine capacity missing,” Chief Deputy Eric Blodgett wrote in the affidavit.
Sheriff Bill Meyerrose and Detective Ally Sullivan interviewed Wyatt at the county jail shortly after his arrest.
“Wyatt described that Joshua had been ‘throwing up gang signs’ and that he was afraid for his life a few nights before. He described his father as ‘bipolar toward (Wyatt),’ and ‘very suicidal’ and ‘belligerent.’ He later said that he was ‘in fear of (his) life, extremely in fear of (his) life,” according to court documents.
If convicted, Wyatt Taylor could face up to 65 years in prison.
Click on the links below to read the aforementioned court documents.
Order Determining Probable Cause
