Jury selection under way in Fritz trial

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September 24, 2009

By GINA KINSLOW The Glasgow Daily Times Thu Sep 24, 2009, 11:38 AM CDT

EDMONTON — Jury selection will begin today in the trial of a Metcalfe County teenager accused of killing his father.

Joshua Fritz, 18, of 240 Neeper Road, Edmonton, is facing charges of murder, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, tampering with physical evidence and third-degree terroristic threatening.

He allegedly bludgeoned his father, Robert H. Fritz, 56, on Oct. 15 or Oct. 16, 2008, to death with a baseball bat and held his father’s girlfriend, Jeannie K. Stewart, 43, hostage at the father’s home.

Joshua Fritz was arrested by the Kentucky State Police on Oct. 16, 2008, after the Edmonton Police Department received a call about the alleged incident from a girl in Indiana, who said her mother, Stewart, was being held hostage by a 17-year-old boy who had beaten his father to death, according to a state police report.

Kentucky State Police troopers and deputies with the Metcalfe County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the scene and observed Joshua Fritz removing his father’s body from the back door of the home. Stewart was found inside and had not been harmed. A baseball bat was removed from the residence as evidence, according to a report.

Although Joshua Fritz was 17 at the time of his arrest, he will stand trial as an adult. The death of Robert Fritz met the criteria for a juvenile to be tried as an adult, which is determined by whether a firearm was used in the commission of the offense, whether the crime was against a person or property and whether the juvenile has a prior criminal history.

If Joshua Fritz is found guilty of murder he faces a sentence of 20 to 50 years in prison or life. Tampering with physical evidence comes with a sentence of one to five years and unlawful imprisonment is also a one to five years sentence.

Joshua Fritz was incarcerated first at the Adair County Juvenile Detention Center, but has since been moved to the Barren County Correction Center.

The trial is expected to last three days.

Fritz is one of two teenagers in southcentral Kentucky accused of killing their fathers. The other is Jared Upton, 18, who allegedly shot his father, John Upton, to death with a 12-gauge shotgun at their home on Old Bowling Green Road near the Barren-Warren County line on Oct. 31, 2008.

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