LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – A Kentucky man testified Monday that he beat his 14-year-old stepson to death with a metal pipe because "it just felt right."

Joshua Gouker, who is serving a life sentence in the killing of Trey Zwicker, made the statement on the witness stand in the murder trial of his 17-year-old son, Joshua Young, who is also accused in the slaying.

“I know it sounds monstrous and all that s###, but it's not. If we were in the Old Testament, it would be the same thing,” Gouker said.

Father and son are accused of killing Zwicker on May 11, 2011, and leaving his body behind a Louisville high school. They were arrested about a month later in Homewood, where they ended up after allegedly kidnapping a woman in Madison and forcing her to drive them there.

Gouker initially told authorities that his son, then 15, had killed Zwicker. He later recanted, claiming he acted alone in beating the boy to death.

The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reports that, when Gouker pleaded guilty in May, he told the judge that he took Zwicker to a nearby creek to confront him about stealing a cigarette lighter and a plate of food. He said he killed the boy with a pipe that he rinsed off in the creek.

The murder weapon has never been found, the newspaper said.

Gouker said in testimony Monday, however, that he killed the boy as payback against his wife and Zwicker's mother, Amanda McFarland, because she had aborted their child.

The convicted murderer also talked at length about his motive in an interview with The Courier-Journal. To view that interview, click here.



See a portion of Gouker's testimony on Monday in the video below.