Reader TTS

Two Urie, Wyoming, parents are under arrest after they allegedly tried to teach their son a lesson about the dangers of drinking. Kendal Ball, 16, was found dead on early July 7 with a

blood-alcohol level of .587 following a night of heavy drinking with his stepfather, Joseph M. Richardson, and his mother, Paulette L. Richardson. In Wyoming, the legal limit to drive a

vehicle is .08. According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, his parents, “wanted to teach him a lesson,” because Kendal had expressed a desire to start drinking. Joseph told authorities

he “was trying to go along with what he had been told and teach a lesson about alcohol and get him sick.” Paulette also told police that Kendal’s biological father was an alcoholic and she

feared her son would become an addict like him. Kendal’s parents allegedly provided the teen with alcohol and got drunk with him and a friend, Joseph Kunkle. It’s unclear how much the teen

drank. But Paulette told police he had “a few shots of Fireball and a few shots of Jack Daniel’s” over course of about two hours on the night of July 6. She did not drink. Kunkle told

authorities he only saw Kendal drink a bit of Fireball and some beer, according to court documents. The teen went to bed at 10:30 p.m. that night. His mother said she checked on him at 11

p.m. and he gave her a thumbs-up. But when Joseph went to see if the boy was okay at around 3:45 a.m. the next morning, he found Kendal unresponsive and called 911. There was “a large amount

of dark, thick fluid pooled on the floor from his mouth,” an affidavit filed in the case and obtained by PEOPLE states. “There were multiple places that looked like vomit on the floor.”

Kendal’s “lips and eyelids were dark blue,” the affidavit reads, adding that his body was cool to the touch. An autopsy determined that the probable cause of death was “complications of

acute alcohol poisoning.” Joseph and Paulette are charged with manslaughter in the case. They are due in court on Friday and have not yet entered a plea. _Want to keep up with the latest

crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter._