West Bend - Charles A. Avey used a necktie Sunday to strangle his stepson, 14-year-old Cody Reetz of Grafton, as payback to the boy's mother for reporting to police that he had beaten her with a hammer, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.
Avey, 37, was charged Tuesday with first-degree intentional homicide in Washington County Circuit Court.
"This was a savage act," Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens said in court. "And it was committed against a family member."
More than a dozen of Reetz's relatives sat silently in the courtroom Tuesday watching Avey. Some cried and shared a box of tissue.
The criminal complaint says Avey used a second necktie to tie the boy's neck to an armrest inside an Oldsmobile minivan, then hid Reetz's body under clothing and a backpack. He killed the boy inside the minivan while it was parked at a Germantown Wal-Mart, the complaint says, and left the lot with a friend shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday.
Avey had called the friend from a Jackson gas station about 30 minutes before killing the boy to request a ride from the Germantown parking lot, the complaint says.
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