HELENA – Bail was set at $500,000 for a Helena man who is charged with killing his parents over the weekend.
Kaleb David Taylor, 21, made an initial appearance Wednesday before Justice of the Peace Michael Swingley via video from the Lewis and Clark County jail. He did not enter a plea and asked for a public defender.
Taylor is charged with two counts of deliberate homicide in the beating deaths of David Taylor, 61, and Charla Taylor, 64. He also is charged with evidence tampering.
A friend of the couple found their bodies Monday evening after they failed to respond to repeated messages during the day, court records said.
Emergency responders observed “the victims had numerous injuries consistent with blunt force trauma,” court records said.
Investigators learned the couple’s son was on conditional release, was under the supervision of the Helena Probation and Parole Office and was supposed to be living with his parents.
Officers interviewed Taylor on Tuesday and he eventually acknowledged beating his adoptive parents on Sunday, taking a shower, burning his bloody clothes and getting rid of the murder weapon and other items he took to make the attack look like a burglary, court records said.
Taylor led officers to the weapon as well as to the spot where he burned his clothes and was arrested, prosecutors said. Court records do not say what weapon was used, but Sheriff Leo Dutton has said it was not a gun.
Taylor is on probation for burglary after he took $15,000 worth of items from his parents’ house, court records said.