A Yeadon man pleaded guilty to killing his father and dumping the body near a golf course in 2018

Nearly six years after stabbing and bludgeoning his father to death, and dumping the corpse outside of a posh country club in Lower Merion Township, a Yeadon man was sentenced this week to 22-to-50 years in state prison.

Robert Coult III, 35, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, confinement and possessing an instrument of a crime for killing his father, Robert Coult Jr., during what investigators said was an argument over money on Sept. 15, 2018.

By pleading to those charges, Coult avoided a trial on first-degree murder and abuse of corpse: Prosecutors said Coult attempted to dismember his father’s body with an electrical saw after killing him.

Coult’s attorney, Stephen Deavor, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Delaware County First Assistant District Attorney Tanner Rouse said Friday that the delay in resolving the case was due to a variety of factors, including initial concerns about Coult’s competency to stand trial, as well as issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, Rouse said, the plea deal offered to Coult, and entered Wednesday during a hearing before Delaware County Court Judge Richard Cappelli, was made with consideration and input from his and his father’s loved ones.

Robert Coult Jr., 59, was found dead the morning after he was killed when an employee of the Philadelphia Country Club in Gladwyne discovered his body on the grassy shoulder of nearby Spring Mill Road, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his son’s arrest.

The two men had gotten into an argument over a small sum of money in their home on Providence Road in Yeadon, the affidavit said. Police had been called to that residence multiple times before due to reports of domestic violence between the men, investigators said at the time of the younger Coult’s arrest.

In a statement to police, Coult alleged that his father had pushed him down a flight of stairs during their argument, the affidavit said. He then grabbed a hammer from a nearby room and struck his father in the head, continuing to hit him after the older man had fallen to the floor.

Thinking his father was still alive, Coult went into the kitchen, retrieved a butcher knife, and stabbed his father in the head, the affidavit said. He then tried to dispose of the body, attempting to use an electric saw to dismember the corpse.

Unable to do so, Coult loaded his father’s corpse into the passenger seat of his Ford Explorer and drove 16 miles to the country club. After dumping the body, Coult disposed of towels and other items from the crime scene in a dumpster at a Havertown Burger King, and threw away his clothing at a second dumpster nearby.