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Man held on $150K bond in murder of his adult special needs son

4 years 1 month 1 week ago Wednesday, February 19 2020 Feb 19, 2020 February 19, 2020 11:13 AM February 19, 2020 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Police arrested a 77-year-old Tuesday for allegedly beating his mentally handicapped son to death.

Officers found Derrick Christophe, 40, dead at a Shelley Street home Friday night after receiving a call from a lawyer representing Christophe's father, Ellsworth Hull. Hull told his lawyer he'd gotten into a fight with his son.

Police found Christophe dead in a bathtub without any clothing. Investigators noticed cuts and bruises across Christophe's head and the rest of his body. A police report said it appeared Cristophe had been dead for about 12 hours.

No blood was found on the victim's body, however, an officer noted spots of blood on the floor of the living room, bathroom, and hallway. Investigators noticed no sign of a struggle but did find empty bleach bottles around the house. It appeared Hull tried to clean the scene of the murder prior to the officers' arrival, according to the police report.

A broken mop handle was also found on top of the refrigerator and a broken metal broom handle was in the trash. Hull admitted that he had struck his son with the wooden handle and "may have" hit him in the head with the metal handle.

Hull told investigators he struck Christophe in retaliation after his son grabbed him. He added that they had gotten into a similar fight about a week ago, but his son wasn't "coming to" like he normally would.
After Christophe lost consciousness, Hull says he placed him in the tub and changed the bathwater while he tried to figure out what he should do.

On Monday, an autopsy determined that Christophe died of internal bleeding in the arm and back due to blunt force injuries. Authorities signed a warrant the next day for Hull's arrest on second-degree murder charges. 

Hull turned himself in to police around Tuesday evening and was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. He is being held on a $150,000 bond.

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