South Florida man accused of fatally beating golfer with club at course in Palm Beach Gardens
PALM BEACH GARDENS - A West Palm Beach man is accused of beating to death a 65-year-old man with a golf club, choking him on the first hole of a public golf course and holding his head in a pond, police said.
Junior Boucher, 36, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death Brian Hiltebeitel at Sandhill Crane Golf Club on Monday afternoon.
Boucher is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail after being medically cleared at Gardens Medical Center.
"I truly believe that I was a victim of witchcraft," Boucher said at his first court appearance.
A judge ordered him held on no bond Tuesday.
"This appears to be a random act of violence where Boucher used the victim's golf clubs as weapons and viciously attacked the victim, ultimately killing him. At this time it does not appear that Boucher had any legitimate purpose for being at the golf course," Palm Beach Gardens Police Chief Dominick Pape said.
At 1:22 p.m. Monday, police responded to multiple 911 calls about one man attacking another man with a golf club.
They went to the first hole next to a body of water where they found Hiltebeitel motionless.
Boucher fled from the scene and was captured after using an electronic control weapon, also known as a Taser, police said.
Detectives met with a witness who said he had been playing golf on the first hole with two other people when they heard a man yelling.
They then found the victim fleeing from the suspect. The witness told officers the suspect was holding a golf club and swinging it toward the victim.
The witness told them that Hiltebeitel was yelling "he's trying to kill me" multiple times. At one point both men fell to the ground and Boucher began striking Hiltebeitel numerous times with the golf club, according to the witness.
After they separated, Boucher retrieved another golf club and again chased Hiltebeitel toward the pond, the witness said.
"Boucher continued to strike Hiltebritel (misspelled) in the head repeatedly with the golf club until they were in the pond," according to the police report. "Once in the water, Boucher jumped on top of Hiltebritel and appeared to be choking him. Boucher then got off of Hiltebritel who was no longer moving and retrieved a golf club and struck him repeatedly in the head."
Afterward, Boucher got out of the water and stripped his clothes off as he walked way, the witness said.
The witness identified him as the one who attacked the victim.
Other people witnessed the attack, police said.
Officers pulled Hiltebeitel out of the water. He had deep lacerations to the back of his head and elsewhere on his body. He was declared dead on the scene by Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue.
His girlfriend, Dina Lauro, is struggling to make sense of it all.
"This is a shock," she said. "His always there. Brian is my right arm. I am taking it moment by moment. That is what I am going to do."
Boucher's mother reported him missing to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office around 12:45 p.m. She was alerted by a frantic call from her younger son that Junior Boucher was banging on his bedroom door and making delusional claims about a wife he does not have.
WPEC, a CBS affiliate, previously reported Boucher in 2022 attempted to choke and gouge the eyes out of a police K-9 used to detain him.
