West Bend - Charles A. Avey used a necktie Sunday to strangle his stepson, 14-year-old Cody Reetz of Grafton, as payback to the boy's mother for reporting to police that he had beaten her with a hammer, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

Avey, 37, was charged Tuesday with first-degree intentional homicide in Washington County Circuit Court.

"This was a savage act," Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens said in court. "And it was committed against a family member."

More than a dozen of Reetz's relatives sat silently in the courtroom Tuesday watching Avey. Some cried and shared a box of tissue.

The criminal complaint says Avey used a second necktie to tie the boy's neck to an armrest inside an Oldsmobile minivan, then hid Reetz's body under clothing and a backpack. He killed the boy inside the minivan while it was parked at a Germantown Wal-Mart, the complaint says, and left the lot with a friend shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday.

Avey had called the friend from a Jackson gas station about 30 minutes before killing the boy to request a ride from the Germantown parking lot, the complaint says.

The friend arrived at Wal-Mart about 4:20 p.m. Sunday, and Avey got into her car several minutes later, the complaint says. He asked to be driven to the van so that he could make sure it was locked.

Avey rode to Grafton with the friend and observed police waiting for him outside his apartment. He then called his ex-wife, Krista Avey, and asked her to pick him up at a Piggly Wiggly in Jackson because his van had run out of gas.

She arrived with the three children they had together prior to their divorce, but Avey asked her to take them to her home because he wanted to talk.

Avey later requested to be driven to a West Bend cemetery to view his mother's grave. Once there, Avey confessed to his ex-wife that he had killed Reetz, the complaint says.

He then asked her to drive him to the Washington County Sheriff's Department, where he turned himself in about 7:25 p.m. Sunday.

At 8:08 p.m., Sheriff's Department officers notified Germantown police that there might be a homicide victim inside a van in the store parking lot.

Domestic violence report

Nearly five hours before the boy's body was found in the minivan Sunday, Avey's current wife, Trista Avey, went to Grafton police with a relative and reported that her husband repeatedly struck her with a hammer Nov. 8.

The criminal complaint says the two were arguing that day in their Grafton apartment when Avey began strangling her with his hands and pounded her head, arms and back with a hammer.

The woman's delay of one week in reporting the attack shows there was a "climate of intimidation in the household," Martens said Tuesday.

After reporting the crime Sunday, Trista Avey told officers that her son, Reetz - an eighth grader at Grafton's John Long Middle School - was with the suspect that afternoon.

Grafton police then issued a bulletin to other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for them.

Neither Reetz's mother nor police were aware that Avey earlier had driven by the Police Department and saw the relative's vehicle there. Avey then drove to the family's apartment and picked up Reetz, and the two drove to Jackson before continuing to the Germantown Wal-Mart.

Grafton police are continuing to investigate the Nov. 8 domestic violence incident, Chief Charles Wenten said.

In court Tuesday, Martens asked Washington County Circuit Judge David Resheske for $1 million bail because of the "brutality of the crime."

Assistant State Public Defender John Kuczmarski told Resheske that Avey was indigent and asked for reasonable bail.

In setting bail at $750,000, Resheske said Tuesday that the criminal complaint shows there is probable cause that Avey killed Reetz. The crime "cries out for substantial cash bail," the judge said. He set a Dec. 2 preliminary hearing on the homicide charge.

Avey also is charged with five counts of identity theft.

Those charges are based on allegations he opened credit card accounts under the name of his wife's former husband, who is the boy's biological father.

In a November 2008 to January 2009 holiday shopping spree, Avey charged more than $22,130 worth of merchandise to the accounts, according to a separate criminal complaint. His initial court appearance on the identity theft charges was Nov. 2, less than a week before he is accused of beating his wife.

Avey told investigators that Trista Avey had no involvement in the identity theft scheme.