North Dakota
Grand Forks murder suspect refuses to appear in court
GRAND FORKS — Prosecutors are calling the beating death of a Grand Forks man murder.
The accused killer is calling it self-defense.
Donald “DJ” Bartlette, 45, was supposed to make his first court appearance on Monday, Oct. 28, to face a murder charge, but the jail staff said he refused to leave his cell.
According to court documents, Tony Kiehl, 49, and Bartlette are seen on surveillance video going into Kiehl’s first-floor apartment at Cherry Heights just after 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24.
Bartlette is seen leaving the apartment about 30 minutes later with blood on him.
Grand Forks County Correctional Center
About an hour later, detectives say Bartlette returned to the apartment with Nicholas Wride-Arnold, 35.
Police say the men leave again and Bartlette goes outside and sits at a picnic table, where he told someone he knew he just beat someone up “pretty bad,” but claimed he had to because the person came at him with a knife, according to court documents.
Kiehl’s girlfriend found her boyfriend’s body at about 9 p.m. Thursday and called police.
Wride-Arnold was arrested later that evening inside an upstairs apartment.
Bartlette was arrested on Friday, Oct. 25, when police said he made several self-defense claims before asking for a lawyer.
Inside the apartment, police said they found a bloody knife that had a 5-inch blade, along with two bloody coffee table legs that had been broken off, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said Kiehl died from blunt force trauma to the head. The medical examiner also noted cuts from a knife.
Grand Forks police said they can’t comment on a potential motive other than they have a “working theory.”
They also would not comment on claims by Kiehl’s sister that Bartlette had attacked Kiehl a few weeks earlier.
Bartlette was ordered to make a court appearance on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
A GoFundMe has been set up
to help Kiehl’s family plan a funeral and help his family travel from Texas to North Dakota.
Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years.