Milo Blaine Whitetail, 56, Minot, is accused of the fatal stabbing of another man at the Economy Hotel Monday morning. Whitetail allegedly stabbed Eric Christopher Patterson, 43, Minot, 15 times during an argument, which was apparently prompted by Whitetail’s accusation of theft and his broken television remote control.

Whitetail is charged in district court in Minot with Class AA felony murder and could face up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted. He is scheduled to make an initial appearance in court today before Judge Doug Mattson.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed with the court, police went to the hotel, located at at 225 22nd Avenue NW in Minot, at about 6:46 a.m. Monday. The hotel front desk clerk told police that she had heard screaming and had met Whitetail in the hallway and saw he had blood on his hands. Police officers walked through the hotel toward room 119, which had its door wide open. They looked into the room and saw Whitetail sitting on the bed, facing the window. Whitetail told the officers, “He needs your help.” Police looked down and saw shoes sticking out from the other side of the bed. They asked Whitetail to leave the room and he agreed. The alleged victim was lying on the floor, face up, with a lot of blood surrounding his body. A steak knife was lying to the right of the alleged victim on the floor. One of the officers took Whitetail out of the room and asked him what happened. Whitetail allegedly told the officer, “I stabbed him. He came into my room.”

One officer attempted to revive Patterson by performing CPR. Patterson was taken by ambulance to Trinity Hospital, but he was pronounced dead at 7:29 a.m. Monday. Patterson suffered 15 stab wounds.

Whitetail later told the police officer that he and Patterson had been in his room the night before and Whitetail had shown Patterson his television set. Whitetail laid down and when he woke up he discovered that the remote control to the television was broken. He went out of his room and saw that the back side of the remote control was outside the door of his room. Whitetail went to the front desk and complained to the front desk clerk that people were stealing at the hotel. Patterson came along and tried to get Whitetail to come with him to talk. Whitetail refused and went back to his room and Patterson followed him. At some point during the argument, Whitetail told police that Patterson grabbed him by the throat. They toppled over the bed and Patterson was on top of Whitetail. Whitetail grabbed a knife that was on his night stand and stabbed Patterson. He then rolled Patterson off him and kept stabbing him in the head, chest and back because he was angry with Patterson.