Man kills self before standing trail for starving father
A Ponder man was found shot to death Monday on the day he was scheduled to go on trial in Denton on charges that he starved his father to death last year.
William Donald Rush, 45, (right) was found shortly after 9 a.m. Monday in a Ford pickup truck near his Denton County home, authorities said. They said they believed he killed himself.
Rush was to go on trial on a charge of injury to an elderly person with bodily injury, a third-degree felony, records stated.
Rush was accused of starving to death his father, 66-year-old Robert Rush, who died on June 22, 2009. The son's trial was supposed to start Monday.
At the time of his death, Robert Rush had bedsores on 80 percent of his back and was suffering from gangrene, records stated.
Son accused of beating dad with baseball bat near Venus
A Johnson County man has died after sheriff's officials said he was beaten with a baseball bat by his son late Sunday.
Robert Ehrhardt, 53, died Monday afternoon at a Fort Worth hospital, the Tarrant County medical examiner's office reported.
His son, Kenneth R. Ehrhardt, 17, (left) was being held Tuesday in the Johnson County Jail, said Lt. Tim Jones, a sheriff's office spokesman.
When deputies arrived at the home late Sunday evening, "they noticed the victim lying on the floor with severe head trauma," Jones said in a news release. "According to witnesses a disturbance had occurred that had escalated into the younger Ehrhardt attacking his father with a bat."
Woman stands trial, accused of participating in father's death
Was she a victim, a savage killer or both?
That's what is being determined this week in the Hood County trial of Deborah Ann Malone Wilson. She is accused of participating in the killing of her 82-year-old father, George Malone, last year a year ago today.
In opening statements Tuesday, defense attorney Terence Russell said George Malone was a hardened man who mistreated and tormented Wilson, 60, her entire life, including the day she joined her brother in the beating that caused the man's death.
But Assistant District Attorney Patrick Berry argued that Wilson scratched and bit her father “like an animal,” knowing that even minor wounds could be dangerous because he was on blood thinners.
Wilson’s brother, David Lee Malone, 59, was sentenced earlier this month to 99 years in prison.
Photo of marshal impersonator released
Dallas police stepped up their efforts to catch a man impersonating a U.S. marshal Tuesday by releasing a new photo of the suspect.
The photo, taken by a motorist, (right) showed the man armed with black semi-automatic handgun.
A motorist said the fake marshal brandished a handgun with a laser sight and pointed it at the motorist’s head.
Dallas police are looking for any motorists that the man may have pulled over at Lemmon and Wycliff avenues.
-- Compiled from the works of Domingo Ramirez Jr., Martha Deller and Bill Miller
In regards to the information of the Ponder man. I truly understand freedom of speech. This truly answers my questions as to why newpapers are going out of business they never have the full story or even concerned as to how it hurts the family that was left behind. Until you walk in man shoes and know the whole truth of the story you should make false allegations as was done in this story
Posted by: Pam | September 28, 2010 at 07:59 PM
I am the widow of William Donald Rush. I am VERY, VERY angry at the story that you have "assembled" about my husband. You know, it's VERY true about not always BELIEVING what you read. Especially when the story does not have the ALL THE FACTS. It's really SAD when a newspaper only REPOTS things they think will get a negative REACTION from readers.
My husband was a good man, I know that for a fact. Did you ever stop to think he was just AFRAID of being railroaded like SO many other people can attest to ? Unlike many people who are in and out of jail their whole lives, he was SCARED of it! He was SCARED of being in jail for years and years for something he SHOULD NOT have been accused of. The ONLY mistake he made was offering his father a place to live not knowing when he came HE WAS HELL BENT ON DYING, one way or another.
Posted by: Melissa Rush | September 29, 2010 at 08:13 AM
I just do not understand how someone could stand by and do nothing while someone that they (according to his wife) loved starved to death. Maybe if the Ponder "man" had reached out for help - both he and his father would be alive today. A "good man" would have done something besides ignore human decency.
In other words... no sympathy will come from me!
Posted by: Yvette | September 30, 2010 at 04:39 PM
Funny, I knew Bill as well...I actually wrote the writer of the article a lengthy e-mail, telling him he forgot to add on the article that Bill was innocent until proven guilty & that I never thought even for a second that he was guilty, esp. after I graduated nursing school, Bill told me that his father was combative & non-compliant with wishes for showering & he refused to eat anything Bill cooked... Even as nurses, who are Licensed to take care of people like this, we are NOT allowed to force them to do ANYTHING they refuse to do...so I believe the charges were bogus in the 1st place... I also told them that they had some of their facts wrong about his death, yet he edited the article to ad 1 quote from the ADA, but seemed to forget to edit the wrong information, this is bad reporting, I gave 2 full days for this article to be edited or even an e-mail response, but I've received nothing...very disapointed in this...
Posted by: Tara Reed | September 30, 2010 at 07:34 PM