Inset: Ronald Cantrell (Bannock County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The 1100 block of North Main Street in Pocatello, Idaho, where Cantrell allegedly killed his neighbor (Google Maps).
Idaho authorities say a 69-year-old man confessed, “I killed that guy,” after officers discovered his neighbor dead inside a car with a sword embedded in his torso. Investigators said the suspect had expressed a “deep distrust” of the victim.
Ronald Cantrell is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Wayne Weberpal, according to court records.
Police responded to a reported stabbing at about 2 p.m. Thursday at an apartment in the 1100 block of North Main Street in Pocatello, according to a probable-cause affidavit obtained by East Idaho News.
When officers arrived, they reportedly found Cantrell standing near a vehicle with his hands raised. Police handcuffed him, and as they escorted him toward a patrol car, he allegedly said, “I killed that guy,” the affidavit states.
Officers then returned to the vehicle and found Weberpal with a sword “protruding from the left side of his upper torso, below his armpit,” according to the report. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities said Cantrell made “several more statements” about killing Weberpal, whom he identified as his neighbor and described as a “mad man.”
“[Cantrell] then stated, ‘I got the gun out, and I cut his gun.’ [Cantrell] continued making statements regarding a firearm equipped with a silencer and repeatedly referred to the other male subject as ‘a killer,’” officers wrote.
Investigators found a long gun fitted with a suppressor, but the weapon had a trigger lock. According to the affidavit, that discovery conflicted with Cantrell’s claim that he had shot Weberpal in self-defense.
Cantrell later told investigators that he had a “deep distrust” of Weberpal.
“Cantrell described multiple times that he believed the victim had been lying in wait to ambush him,” the complaint reportedly states.
Cantrell was booked into the Bannock County Jail, where he remains held on $500,000 bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 18.
The post “‘I killed that guy’: 69-year-old man accused of plunging sword into neighbor he had a ‘deep distrust’ of, cops say” first appeared on Law & Crime.