STANTON - A Beulah man charged with attempting to murder his daughter's boyfriend New Year's Eve was released on bond Thursday at the Mercer County Courthouse in Stanton.

Richard Boe, 58, was ordered to pay $10,000 cash bond and stay away from alcohol and the shooting victim, who remains hospitalized with two .40 caliber bullet holes in his upper chest.

Billy Jack Matthews, 25, an unemployed oil field worker, was shot from 3 feet away in the alcohol-fueled domestic dispute with Boe, according to Beulah Police Department reports.

They reported Boe was sitting in a living room chair and holding the gun in one hand and the gun's magazine in the other, when Beulah officers Paul Martin and Frank Senn arrived at his apartment to investigate reported possible gunshots at about 11:30 p.m.

Matthews was drifting in and out of consciousness in a bloody scene in a bedroom. One officer summoned an ambulance, while the other stayed with Boe, getting him to put down his weapon and eventually placing him under arrest.

The shooting took place in Cottonwood Apartments, which Boe shared with his daughter, Valerie Aneo, 19, and Matthews, who'd been dating for just more than three months.

Aneo told police her dad is a recovering alcoholic who had been drinking for several days prior to the shooting and that she and her boyfriend also had been drinking since earlier in the evening.

She said Boe was kicking in doors early in the day and "riding" her boyfriend about being unemployed and living with his girlfriend's father.

Aneo said at one point during the evening, Boe threatened to shoot her and her sister, Yuki River, causing Matthews and Boe to get into a physical altercation.

River and her boyfriend Maiko Kern, of Grafton, were in and out of the apartment that night, but not during the shooting, according to reports. Police reports say Matthews and Kern also scuffled that night.

Aneo, the daughter, told police that Boe left the apartment to get the gun and came in where she and Matthews were sitting on the floor together, heads on each other's shoulder. She said Boe pointed the gun at Matthews and told him, "This is how it's going to go."

She said Matthews pushed Boe against the wall and then she heard two shots, according to police.

Boe told police that when he came in from the garage with a gun in his hand, Matthews was standing over his daughter and choking her. He said Matthews came after him and he, Boe, fired in self-defense and to protect his family.

Attempted murder is a felony, punishable by up to life imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 23.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 1-888-303-5511, or lauren@westriv.com.)