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March 12, 2007
Polk Co. man convicted of patricide dies in prison

Register Staff Reports

Richard Wheeler, 52, who had been in prison the past 22 years for the December 1984 slaying of his father in Polk County, died today at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

Wheeler succumbed to Lou Gehrig's Disease, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, said Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections. He had been a patient in the penitentiary's hospice care unit.

Wheeler entered prison in 1985 for the shooting and bludgeoning death of his father, Dale Wheeler, 59, at the family's home in northeast Polk County. He was convicted and given a life sentence after a judge ruled he was not legally insane at the time of the killing.

A psychologist and a psychiatrist disagreed during Wheeler's trial about his mental status when the slaying occurred. But both agreed he was mentally ill and probably had been for at least a year before his father was killed.

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