A Claypool man is accused of smothering his father after repeatedly questioning if he was adopted.
Joe Lewis Rose Jr., 54, of 105 E. Section St., Claypool, was booked in the Kosciusko County Jail at 4:03 p.m. Friday and faces a Level 5 charge of domestic battery causing serious bodily injury; possession of methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony; and possession of paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed Friday in Kosciusko Superior Court I, on March 1, Kosciusko County Sheriff deputies were dispatched to a house for a report of a shooting. Upon arriving, police got permission from the homeowner, who was also the victim and in the back of an ambulance, to search the home. Inside the living room, police located a 0.38 caliber revolver on an end table and a trash can next to the table filled with bloody clothes. Inside the victim’s bedroom, police also located bloody pillows, according to court papers.
Inside the bedroom of Rose, police found methamphetamine and smoking pipes.
When police spoke with the victim, he said that he was watching TV in the living room when his son confronted him, demanding to know if he was adopted. The man told police that every time he told his son, “No,” Rose would punch him and kick him, according to the affidavit. The man said Rose also put his hands around the man’s throat and began choking him while saying, “Tell me the truth or I’m going to kill you!”
The man told police that after that altercation ended, he eventually went to bed. At that point, Rose entered the man’s room, got on top of him, put his knee of the man’s chest then grabbed a pillow and started to smother the man, according to court papers. When Rose stopped, the man went to sit in the living room to catch his breath, court papers state, and that is when Rose allegedly continued the confrontation about being adopted and told the man he was going to kill him that night.
According to the affidavit, that is when the man grabbed a gun from the side pocket of his chair and fired the gun at Rose.
When police spoke with Rose several days later, he told police he did that, and that he was “trying to beat the truth out of his dad,” according to court papers. Rose also admitted the meth and pipes were his and that he had been smoking methamphetamine prior to the incident.
The victim sustained severe bruising to his face and his ear was severely bruised and bleeding, according to the affidavit, along with a swollen and bruised foot, bruised ribs, cuts on his arms and labored breathing.
