'Family Feud' Spurred Son To Murder Stepdad, Set Victim's Body Ablaze

A man from Oklahoma was sentenced to 45 years in prison after he shot, killed, and burned his stepfather's body over a reported “family feud” between the two–with the killer accepting a plea deal while admitting his lack of innocence in court.

Kevin Tyler Foster, a 36-year-old man from Bixby, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the second-degree murder of his stepfather Rick Swan in 2018. Foster took a plea deal with prosecutors to confess to the crime in exchange for the sentence, which the judge approved, according to Law&Crime.

“The parties have considered various factors in fashioning this sentence, including the defendant’s acceptance of responsibility, the strength of the evidence, judicial economy, and the interests of justice,” the plea deal agreement said. “Specifically, the defendant provided an in-depth confession to all of the events surrounding and including the murder.”

Foster admitted to entering the trailer of Swan in 2018 and shooting him multiple times, before dousing Swan’s body with “incendiary liquid” and burning the victim's remains, which attracted firefighters and other officials to the scene, ABC 8 reported.

“I opened the trailer door and shot Mr. Swan three times. I then poured an incendiary liquid on Mr. Swan’s dead body and lit his body on fire. I shot at Mr. Swan with malice aforethought and intended to kill him,” Foster said in a statement.

Foster and Swan were reportedly in a “family feud” together, and that Swan had expressed apprehension regarding his safety around Foster. The day that Swan was killed, the two were expected to meet in a hearing in Tulsa County District Court related to the feud.

Among the evidence stacked against Foster was his vehicle being seen in Swan’s trailer that morning, as well as images from a deer camera that had “revealed still images of the defendant inside the building at 10:36 a.m. the day of the crime carrying what appeared to be a firearm."

“A second image showed Foster carrying a red gasoline can, and another showed a fire blaze and illumination on the edge of the screen,” according to a press release.