Investigators say a nephew later described using pepper spray and an electric flyswatter during a fight with his uncle.

POCATELLO, Idaho — A text message from Andrew Shane Scoffield to his cousin sent a son racing to his father’s home on Aug. 30, where he found 68-year-old Jeffery Scott Scoffield unresponsive in a living room chair after what police say was a violent family dispute.

The son, Joshua Scoffield, told investigators he had first received a missed call from Andrew Scoffield and then a message saying Andrew believed he might have killed Jeffery Scoffield with an electric flyswatter, according to a probable cause affidavit described by local news outlets. Joshua Scoffield tried to reach his father, got no answer and went to the house in the 800 block of Park Avenue. He found his father unresponsive and attempted CPR until emergency crews arrived. Pocatello police said Jeffery Scoffield died after a family argument became physical, and officers later arrested Andrew Scoffield, 44, on a charge described in court records and local reporting as second-degree homicide or second-degree murder.

The text and the son’s discovery became the starting point for a case that police say grew out of a deteriorating living arrangement. Andrew Scoffield told detectives he had been staying with his uncle for several months and that the relationship had worsened after he borrowed about $600 roughly two weeks before the death. In his account to police, he said his uncle had begun insulting him, referring to him as “his maid,” and sometimes cutting power to the part of the basement where he was staying. Those claims came from Andrew Scoffield’s police interview and have not been established as independent fact.

Andrew Scoffield told investigators that he was moving belongings out of the home when his uncle returned and confronted him. According to the affidavit, Andrew said Jeffery shoved him against a door frame and later picked up an aluminum bat. He said he responded with pepper spray. The two men then ended up fighting on the floor, Andrew told police, before he sprayed his uncle again. He also described using a large electric flyswatter during the encounter, striking or throwing it at Jeffery’s head. Police accounts of the interview said Jeffery fell back into a chair and appeared to be struggling to breathe.

What happened immediately afterward is central to the prosecution’s account. Andrew Scoffield told police he left the home and went to a friend’s house, where he washed pepper spray from himself. He later contacted Joshua Scoffield. Officers found Andrew later that evening and took him into custody. Pocatello police said the initial call came at about 3:15 p.m., and a department statement said Andrew was booked into the Bannock County Jail at about 10 p.m. The affidavit and news reports place his contact with police earlier in the evening, but the available reports do not provide a minute-by-minute account of every step between the fight and his booking.

Investigators also documented events in the neighborhood before the fatal encounter. A neighbor told police that Andrew Scoffield had been riding a four-wheeler around the area in the preceding days while yelling profanities and behaving erratically, according to court-document reporting by East Idaho News. The neighbor also described seeing Andrew release air from a tire on a vehicle belonging to Jeffery, and officers said they confirmed that detail. Other reports said Jeffery had also deflated tires on Andrew’s four-wheeler after complaints about his riding. Those details suggest the conflict had spread beyond the house before the men fought, although police have not said that any single tire dispute caused the death.

Police said the physical evidence at the home did not fully match Andrew Scoffield’s account, though the reports reviewed did not spell out every discrepancy. Officers found Jeffery in a chair in the living room and noted a large amount of pepper spray residue in the surrounding area, according to the affidavit. The Idaho State Journal reported that police initially believed the pepper spray may have contributed to Jeffery’s death by affecting his breathing. An autopsy was scheduled in Ada County shortly after the death, but the reliable reports reviewed for this article did not provide a confirmed autopsy result or a final public medical finding on the precise cause and manner of death.

That unresolved medical question is important because the charging theory must ultimately connect the defendant’s alleged conduct to Jeffery Scoffield’s death. The public affidavit describes both pepper spray and a blow involving the electric flyswatter, while the early police assessment placed particular emphasis on breathing impairment. The unusual object drew national attention, but the record available in the first days of the case did not establish that the flyswatter blow alone caused the death. A criminal charge is an allegation, and prosecutors would have to prove the required elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt if the case goes to trial.

Andrew Scoffield appeared by video from the Bannock County Jail for an Aug. 31 arraignment before 6th District Magistrate Judge David A. Hooste, according to the Idaho State Journal. Prosecutors requested a $1 million bond, and reports said bond was set at that amount. He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 14. At that stage, prosecutors would ordinarily seek to show enough evidence for the felony case to proceed in district court, but the sources reviewed for this article did not reliably establish the result of that scheduled hearing or identify a later court date. The absence of a verified update means the case’s procedural posture after Sept. 14 should not be assumed.

Under Idaho law, second-degree murder carries a sentence of at least 10 years and may be punishable by life in prison if a defendant is convicted. Early local reporting also said a conviction could carry a fine of up to $50,000. Those possible penalties do not indicate guilt and would matter only after a conviction. Andrew Scoffield was represented by a public defender in the initial proceedings, and Courtroom Insider reported that the Idaho State Public Defender’s Office does not comment on pending cases. No defense filing or statement reviewed for this article provided a fuller response to the allegations.

The police interview also included Andrew Scoffield’s statement that he had used methamphetamine in the weeks before the killing, according to East Idaho News. Neighbors’ descriptions of erratic behavior were included in the probable cause materials, but the available reporting does not establish that drug use caused the confrontation or that Andrew was intoxicated during it. Investigators have not publicly identified a single motive beyond the accumulating family disputes described in the affidavit, including the loan, the shared living arrangement, arguments over household conditions and conflict involving vehicles.

The case therefore rests on more than the headline-grabbing object described in the affidavit. It includes a family member’s warning text, a son’s failed effort to revive his father, the defendant’s account of an escalating fight, physical evidence that police said raised questions and a medical determination that was still pending in the earliest detailed reports. Pocatello police said no additional arrests were expected. As of Oct. 19, 2026, the sources reviewed did not provide a reliable public update confirming the autopsy conclusion or the outcome of the Sept. 14 hearing, leaving those points unresolved in the public record available for this report.

Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.