May 20, 2013
A Defuniak Springs teen-ager will be tried as an adult for allegedly gunning down his father inside their home.
If convicted, Ryan Mingledorff will face one of two sentences: death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Last November, then 17 years old, Mingledorff allegedly shot his father, James Mingledorff, several times in the face with a .22-caliber rifle.
The boy then allegedly brought his father's body outside, where he fastened an extension cord around the man's neck and tied the cord's other end to a pick-up truck bumper.
The motive of the killing remains unknown. The trial is scheduled to get underway in May. This was the first homicide in Walton County in more than three years.
