Fayetteville teen pleads to second-degree murder in the 2023 death of his father, Chef Hefe
A Fayetteville teen was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison recently for the death of his father, a well-known personal chef in the city.
Nearly a year after his father, Bryant Kirby Preston Jr., died, Jaeden Preston, 17, pleaded guilty in Cumberland County Superior Court on April 17 to second-degree murder in the death. His 36-year-old father, an Army veteran, was known to thousands of online followers and customers as Chef Hefe.
Judge George R. Hicks III sentenced the younger Preston to 12 to 15 years, five months in prison, court records show. The teen received credit for the 361 days he served in custody awaiting trial.
According to the records, Bryant Preston died April 18, 2023, after spending 26 days in the hospital with third-degree burns on his face, chest, arms and hands caused when his then-15-year-old son doused him in hot grease.
Search warrants in the case state that on March 24, Jaeden Preston waited for his father to return from the store to their Larue Court home, and when the father walked into the kitchen about 8 p.m., Jaeden threw hot oil on him.
The elder Preston was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and then transferred to the burn unit in the UNC Hospital at Chapel Hill where he underwent multiple surgical procedures, the record states.
Early the morning of Bryant Preston’s death, he was noted to have acute decreasing oxygen saturations and never recovered despite the hospital's efforts to save him, according to the autopsy. His cause of death is listed as "complications from thermal injuries." The injuries covered 25% of his body, the autopsy states.
Jaeden Preston was originally charged as a juvenile with assault inflicting serious bodily injury, court records show. After his father's death, Jaeden Preston was indicted by a grand jury on a first-degree murder charge and the case was eventually transferred to adult court.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Whitaker, who prosecuted the case, said that Bryant Preston took his son's cell phone days before the incident and the two had argued over trash earlier that day.
A search warrant affidavit for access to Bryant Kirby's Facebook account notes that the son moved in with his father in June 2022 after complaining about his stepfather. The record references a picture that Bryant Kirby posted to his Facebook page, showing the older Kirby smiling widely into the camera as his son sits next to him in a car. The photo is captioned "Happiest Father Alive!!!!" and reads in part, "if you knew what I put up with and went thru to get my kids you would understand my joy and thankfulness to the higher power for making it happen!!!!"
According to the records, when speaking with investigators after the attack, Jaeden said his relationship with his dad was "almost nonexisting" and that his father "can be verbally abusive."
"Juvenile JP advised that on 03/24/2023 had had enough," an affidavit for a search warrant states.
Whitaker said that he believed the two got into arguments because Bryant Preston held his son accountable for his actions.
On his 17th birthday, Jaeden Preston became inmate T776477 in the Foothills Correctional Institute, according to records from the Department of Adult Correction.
Public safety reporter Joseph Pierre can be reached at jpierre@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville's Jaeden Preston sentenced for killing father, Chef Hefe
