Man pleads guilty in fatal beating of father

A man who beat his father to death with a baseball bat pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder with a deadly weapon.

Richard Heron Jr., 34, said he got into an quarrel with his 64-year-old father, Richard Heron Sr., over money for alcohol in November 2012, when his father attacked him with a bat.

The younger Heron grabbed the bat, hit his father back and snapped “in the heat of passion,” according to his lawyer, Scott Coffee.

The plea came Wednesday afternoon as attorneys in the case were picking a jury for Heron’s trial. He was facing life with the possibility of parole if convicted of charges that included elderly abuse because his father was older than 60, according to prosecutor Hetty Wong.

Though Heron said he did not recall how many times he hit his father with the bat, an autopsy showed the victim suffered at least two blows to the torso and six or seven blows to the head, Wong said.

Heron wanted money to buy some drinks and approached his father, with whom he lived, and his father tried to turn him away, Wong said.

Heron stayed in the condominium with the body that night and left for Arkansas the next day to visit his mother for Thanksgiving.

The decomposing body sat inside his condominium for more than a week before Heron admitted to the killing in a text message and phone call to an ex-girlfriend, according to a Las Vegas police report.

He turned himself in to police in Arkansas, and his ex-girlfriend told police to check the unit on North Torrey Pines Drive near Lake Mead Boulevard.

Officers found the father’s body in the kitchen, with a blood-stained wooden bat next to him.

He faces between 21 and 52 years in prison at a January sentencing before District Judge Carolyn Ellsworth.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.