Family tragedy ends in life sentence for Austin man convicted for killing father
A Travis County jury found Dietrich White, 49, guilty of murder in connection with the 2018 death of his father.
Jurors heard four and a half days of testimony and deliberated for about two hours before reaching a verdict.
The same jury handed down a life sentence on Tuesday.
On Nov. 11, 2018, police were called to a Red Roof Inn in South Austin. In the parking lot, they found Richard White, 64, injured and unresponsive. He was eventually pronounced dead at the scene. Richard’s wife, Rebecca White, and his son, Dietrich White, were present.
Dietrich White initially told police officers on the scene that, earlier that morning, he had picked up his father on the side of the road. He said his father reported being in a fight.
But police described scratches and bruising on Dietrich White's hands, which they said were “consistent” with injuries suffered during fist-fighting.
In the days after his father’s death, Dietrich White told police conflicting stories about what happened to his father.
Dietrich White later told detectives that he and his father left the hotel in search of a sex worker. After they couldn’t find her, Dietrich White met with an acquaintance to purchase drugs. When he came back to the vehicle, he discovered that his father had been assaulted, he said.
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According to court documents, Dietrich White had driven from Arkansas to Austin with his parents to retrieve his trailer. An employee at the Red Roof Inn told police that, the day prior to Richard White’s death, he had an extended argument with his son in the hotel lobby.
In a deposition, the employee said that Dietrich White told her that his father “was going to end up dead from either a heart attack or from drinking.”
Police said that they found DNA evidence suggesting that Dietrich and Richard White had engaged in a physical altercation. During the trial, Dietrich White’s defense lawyer tried to cast doubt on the reliability of the forensic science.
Dietrich White's brothers, Ian and Rick, were present in the courtroom, sitting apart from their mother. White's family members have given different accounts of the family dynamic.
On the witness stand, Ian White described a yearslong violent relationship between Dietrich White and their father.
Ian White said that their mother, Rebecca, “minimized and enabled” Dietrich White’s behavior. During her own testimony, Rebecca White disputed this characterization.
During the sentencing portion of the trial, jurors heard from Dietrich White's ex-wife, who said she endured years of physical abuse. In 2004, Dietrich White had been charged with aggravated battery of a pregnant person in Florida. Jurors were allowed to take this prior conviction into account when determining his sentence.
Against his attorney’s advice, Dietrich White testified during the sentencing portion of the trial. He said his brother and his ex-wife had lied on the witness stand. During cross-examination, Dietrich White accused prosecutors and police of misconduct.
Referring to injuries visible on Richard White’s body in autopsy photos, Dietrich White said his father had not been that badly hurt. White suggested that authorities had tampered with his father’s body and planted evidence on the scene.
In an interview with the American-Statesman, Ian White described his father — who had a long white beard — as a "natural Santa Claus," approached by children wherever he went. Richard White was a Pink Floyd fan and worked in the aerospace industry.
"He was a man of small stature but large presence,” Ian White said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Dietrich White guilty of murder in father Richard White's killing
