Zach Reid takes stand in own defense

OSHKOSH - Zachary Reid, the Neenah teen accused of strangling his father to death last October, took the witness stand Wednesday in his own defense.

During his more than three hours on the witness stand, the 17-year-old testified his father frequently drank, usually yelled at him, and had pulled a knife on him around 20 times over the past few years.

But on an early October morning last year at their Neenah apartment, during an argument over unfinished homework, he said his drunken father did something different with a knife that made him fear for his life.

"He took it and he waved it in my face a couple times like that and then after he said 'kill yourself or kill me' he proceeded to lower his arm and go back as if he's about to thrust it and the point was aimed at my chest," testified Reid.

Reid says he instinctively dodged his father and put him in a choke hold.

"I was afraid for my life at that point," said Reid.

And he says his intention wasn't to kill him.

"Were you surprised he died?" asked his attorney.

"Extremely," said Reid.

He then emotionally described what he did after he realized his dad was dead.

"There was a bag right in front of the bookshelf and I put it on his head so that stuff wouldn't get on the carpet," said Reid. "I mean it sounds really dumb but to be honest I was afraid he was going to yell at me if I got the carpet all dirty. So I put it on his head."

"What did you do after?" asked his attorney.

"I took his belt off and put it around his neck," said Reid.

He says he then rolled his father up in a blanket, carried him downstairs, put him in the trunk of his father's car and drove and left the car at a nearby elementary school.

"What were you thinking during this whole time?" asked his attorney.

"What the hell happened? I still couldn't believe he was dead," said Reid.

The jury could get the case as early as Thursday. If it doesn't believe his self defense claim, the teenager is facing life in prison.

The defense is scheduled to call a forensic psychiatrist to the stand Thursday to testify about battered child syndrome and its relation to this case.