Dad indicted on charge of carving pentagram on son's back (Tarrant County, Texas)

Dad BRENT TROY BARTEL has been indicted on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/25/4642179/father-charged-with-carving-pentagram.html

Richland Hills father indicted on charge of carving pentagram on son's back

Posted Monday, Feb. 25, 20135

By Domingo Ramirez Jr.

FORT WORTH -- A Tarrant County grand jury has indicted a Richland Hills father on a charge that he carved a pentagram on the back of his young son with a box cutter.

Jurors returned the indictment last week against Brent Troy Bartel, 39, who remained in Tarrant County Jail Monday with bail set at $500,000.

The indictment charged Bartel with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

If convicted, Bartel faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. Bartel was arrested Dec. 12 at his home in the 3700 block of Ruth Road in Richland Hills after he called 911 and told a dispatcher that "I shed some innocent blood."

When asked why he did it, Bartel said because "it's a holy day," according to the 911 recording. When officers arrived, police found Bartel and his son -- wearing only pajama bottoms -- in the home. Police found that a pentagram had been carved on the back of a boy who was later identified as Bartel's son.

The child was taken to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth where he was treated and released a few hours after the attack.

Investigators also believe that Bartel got some of his son's blood and smeared the door frame of the family's home in the 3700 block of Ruth Road in Richland Hills.

The boy's mother had fled to a neighbor's home where she had that neighbor call 911.

Bartel's mother, Lori Ponce, told the Star-Telegram in a December interview that her son had no history of mental illness, but he had been under tremendous stress because of marital and financial problems.