New Hanover man pleads guilty in connection with father's death
A Myrtle Grove man was sentenced to serve time in prison for beating his 73-year-old father to death with a baseball bat in 2020.
Assistant District Attorney Amy White said the room was covered in blood.
Flynn Thomas Gruidl, 44 at the time, pleaded guilty to second degree murder. Judge Kent Harrell sentenced him to 23-28 years in prison.
According to reports from the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, the crime occurred after a dispute between Gruidl and his father, Thomas Gruidl. Deputies responded to a call from a 911 call from a family friend on Caribe Court.
Deputies found his father suffering from blunt force trauma wounds. He died at the scene.
The elder Gruidl was dealing with cancer, health problems and was confined to a wheelchair.
Previous coverage: Exploitation, theft charges for Wilmington man who allegedly killed his father
White said they went upstairs and found his son holding an ice pick to his neck. With guns drawn, they tried to negotiate for him to remove the ice pick away. During that time, White said the defendant was also holding a butcher's knife.
Officials said Gruidl claimed he was abused by his parents and had multiple personalities. One of them, "Lester Green," was the one who killed his father, according to Gruidl. White reported that it was a character he developed to escape the trauma he went through in his life. Despite the different personality, White said he confessed to killing his father with a baseball bat and was found not to be insane at the time.
In November 2021, he was also charged for obtaining property by false pretenses and the exploitation of a disabled or elderly adult for incidents in 2020. The warrants said he transferred $134,000 from his parents’ account without his mother’s authorization to a joint account that he shared with her and then spent the money.
Gruidl's attorney, Paul Mediratta, said his client has a history of mental illness and may have been manipulated by his girlfriend to take money from his family.
In addition to the sentence, Harrell is allowing Gruidl to get psychiatric treatment and related care while he serves time in prison.
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Reporter Chase Jordan can be reached at cjjordan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: New Hanover man to serve prison time for hitting, killing dad with bat
