DELAND - A 28-year-old Holly Hill man was indicted Tuesday on a charge of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning of his father, in what Holly Hill police termed a "crime of rage."
A Volusia grand jury handed up the indictment at the Volusia County Courthouse against Juan Luther Reid, charging him with pre-meditated murder of 73-year-old James Leroy Reid, whose body was found March 2 in the family's home on Jarecki Avenue.
Police Chief Mark Barker has described the killing -- blunt force trauma to the head -- as a particularly brutal "crime of rage" fueled by an addiction to crack cocaine and the need to steal money to feed that habit.
Barker said the accused killer confessed to the murder. With the indictment, Reid could face the death penalty if convicted at trial, but State Attorney R.J. LaRizza has not sad yet whether he will seek that as a punishment.