HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A Helena-area man charged with killing his parents acknowledged burglarizing their business earlier this month to get money to pay a drug debt, Lewis and Clark County prosecutors said.
Kaleb David Taylor, 21, allegedly confessed to killing David Taylor, 61, and Charla Taylor, 64, on March 18. Kyle Alexander Hamm, 21, and Journey Wienke, 22, have also been charged with deliberate homicide in the deaths.
Based on surveillance video, prosecutors believe Kaleb Taylor, Hamm, Wienke and another man broke into the RV park office owned by the Taylors and took less than $1,500 on March 10, according to Hamm’s charging documents.
Both Hamm and Kaleb Taylor said a man with a gun had threatened Kaleb Taylor for failing to pay a drug debt so they stole money from the RV park, investigators said. Kaleb Taylor did not identify who made the alleged threat.
David and Charla Taylor had confronted their son about the break-in, and he acknowledged his role, other members of the victims’ family told investigators.
On the night of the homicides, Hamm told officers he was with Taylor and Wienke at a Helena casino when they decided to drive to the victims’ house.
Hamm said Taylor and Wienke went inside the home while he stayed outside.
They then went to a car wash where surveillance video shows Taylor and Wienke using the wash wand to spray their feet, “presumably to remove evidence of blood,” according to charging documents. Wienke also washed a “long bar-type device investigators believe was the murder weapon.”
Hamm acknowledged kicking a knife into the car wash drain, according to court records.
An autopsy determined David and Charla Taylor died of blunt force and sharp force injuries.
Sheriff Leo Dutton says officers are searching for another person of interest.
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