8 year charged with slayings offered deal

Tonington

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Oct 27, 2006
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Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to an 8-year-old boy charged with murder in the shooting deaths of his father and another man in their St. Johns home.
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Complete details of the offer aren't spelled out in a court filing posted on the Apache County Superior Court's Web site on Saturday.But Apache County Attorney Chriss Candelaria writes that he has "tendered a plea offer to the juvenile's attorneys that would resolve all the charges in the juvenile court contingent on the results of the mental health evaluations."
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Defense attorney Benjamin Brewer argued in a Nov. 25 filing that prosecutors wanted the charge dismissed so they could refile it when the boy was older and press the case in adult court.Brewer said Saturday that the deal would resolve the case without it being transferred to adult court, although he declined to provide additional details. Although he is considering the offer, Brewer said he is unsure of his client's ability to understand the proceedings. At least two mental health evaluations are yet to be completed.
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Each man was shot several times with a single-shot, bolt-action .22-caliber rifle.
...

Boy Charged In Slayings Offered Deal - Phoenix News Story - KPHO Phoenix

Geez. That's sad. At eight years old I was content to catch frogs and tad poles and play baseball. Maybe shoot some cans with my air rifle. But never shoot a person.
 

Andem

dev
Mar 24, 2002
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Larnaka
8-y.o. kills father after 1000th spanking

Boy 'killed father after 1,000 smacks'

An eight-year-old US boy accused of murdering his father and a family friend kept a tally of his parents' smackings, vowing that the 1,000th time would be the last, police believe.

The unnamed boy allegedly shot dead his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, their lodger, at the family home in St Johns, Arizona, with a .22 rifle as they were coming home from work at a local power plant.

The double murder on Nov 5 shocked the US, with investigators initially struggling to find any motive.

However, according to police records reported by the Arizona Republic, the boy "is believed to have made ledgers and/or communicated in the form of writings about his intentions" if his father and stepmother continued to smack him.

According to the police records, the boy told a Child Protective Services official that "when he reached one thousand spankings . . . that would be his limit. [The boy] kept a tally of his spankings on a piece of paper."

Despite his age, relatives suspected the boy immediately in the shootings. His grandfather told investigators: "If any 8-year-old was capable of doing this, [the boy] was", and the child's grandmother added: "I knew this was going to happen, they were too hard on [him]."

The boy told police he was smacked the day before the shootings for failing to finish schoolwork.

Records indicate the boy had no history of psychiatric care and was not on any medication.

Police say he gave conflicting accounts about the shootings, initially saying he discovered the bodies when he returned home from school.

He later changed his story, admitting he shot each man twice to end their suffering after they had been shot by an unknown assailant.

In an interview whose contents was later released by police, the boy admitted he been angry with his father after the latter asked his stepmother to smack him for not bringing some schoolwork home.

At the end of the interview, he buried his head in his jacket. Asked by an officer what he was thinking, he replied: "I'm going to go to juvie."


telegraph.co.uk
 

JLM

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Nov 27, 2008
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Either the parents were brutal or the kid's a little bugger. I rather suspect the latter.
 

scratch

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May 20, 2008
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Boy 'killed father after 1,000 smacks'

An eight-year-old US boy accused of murdering his father and a family friend kept a tally of his parents' smackings, vowing that the 1,000th time would be the last, police believe.

The unnamed boy allegedly shot dead his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, their lodger, at the family home in St Johns, Arizona, with a .22 rifle as they were coming home from work at a local power plant.

The double murder on Nov 5 shocked the US, with investigators initially struggling to find any motive.

However, according to police records reported by the Arizona Republic, the boy "is believed to have made ledgers and/or communicated in the form of writings about his intentions" if his father and stepmother continued to smack him.

According to the police records, the boy told a Child Protective Services official that "when he reached one thousand spankings . . . that would be his limit. [The boy] kept a tally of his spankings on a piece of paper."

Despite his age, relatives suspected the boy immediately in the shootings. His grandfather told investigators: "If any 8-year-old was capable of doing this, [the boy] was", and the child's grandmother added: "I knew this was going to happen, they were too hard on [him]."

The boy told police he was smacked the day before the shootings for failing to finish schoolwork.

Records indicate the boy had no history of psychiatric care and was not on any medication.

Police say he gave conflicting accounts about the shootings, initially saying he discovered the bodies when he returned home from school.

He later changed his story, admitting he shot each man twice to end their suffering after they had been shot by an unknown assailant.

In an interview whose contents was later released by police, the boy admitted he been angry with his father after the latter asked his stepmother to smack him for not bringing some schoolwork home.

At the end of the interview, he buried his head in his jacket. Asked by an officer what he was thinking, he replied: "I'm going to go to juvie."


telegraph.co.uk

These killings were pre-meditated and he may go to juvenile holding but in my opinion at the age of twelve or fourteen he will be in the general prison population and facing possible double homicide charges.

Why would he be made an offer? Police trying to bury this one. This child is calculating and DOES IMO fully understand deals/pleas -- probably figures he will get off on a psych evaluation. He should not.

I have always said if there is a gun available someone is going to get killed.

Of course he will get counseling but I do not think IMO that will help.

scratch
 
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JLM

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scratch

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I have a story of my own to relate about this incident.

When I was growing up I was disciplined by both my mother and father. I have calculated the amount of days from the first time I was disciplined (or punished) to the last. It works out to about 5000 days.
I was caught doing things that I wasn't supposed to and was (if my mother caught me) beaten with a wooden spoon -- the largest that she could find.
If I was caught by my father his choice for punishment was a `tomato bamboo switch`.
I had an older brother and sister and learned from their mistakes and I figure that I got caught about a quarter of the time. That works out to about 1250 times that I was beaten.
Yet this solution never entered my mind. I decided when I turned eighteen I would turn the tables on my parents.

The last time my mother tried to beat me I took the wooden spoon and broke it in three and then slapped her across the face and said if she did that again the same would happen.

About a week later, my father accused me of something that I didn't do and came after me with `a large bamboo switch`. By that time I was six foot three and two hundred and forty pounds. I had four inches in height on my father and about seventy-five pounds.

The chase ended in the kitchen where I took the switch, broke it and then grabbed him by the throat and pushed him six inched closer to the ceiling and told him if he tried that again he would get much worse than he got this time.

scratch
 

scratch

Senate Member
May 20, 2008
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missle, c'mon

In my opinion I really don't think that is funny.

scratch
 

Nuggler

kind and gentle
Feb 27, 2006
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Backwater, Ontario.
Yes, Missile, certainly nuked that one..........:lol:

Moral is maybe don't keep whacking the hell outa yer kids just cause you can.

They grow up, or pick up..........a gun.

Must have been head shots, cause a .22 ! ?, that would just get the shootees angry.
 

missile

House Member
Dec 1, 2004
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Saint John N.B.
I was thinking of that,too. A.22 in the ear would do the trick[the mafia hitmen used that method]. Seriously tho..this kid must never see the outside of some institution..too nutso to ever be allowed to roam free.
 

Praxius

Mass'Debater
Dec 18, 2007
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Halifax, NS & Melbourne, VIC
Well there are better ways to deal with children other then smacking them around every single time they don't do something right, such as forgetting to bring school work home.

Hell, I'd get a yelling or stern warning over something like that.... smacks were reserved for more serious situations..... sounds like this kid was beaten for any paticular excuse that suited the moment.

Chances are if I had to put up with that kind of living, I'd shoot the fk'er too. Some people have limits to certain things they will be subjected to, and if he didn't know of any decent way of getting out of his situation without having his father beat him more, he probably would have taken it, however many children who are stuck in these situations don't know what they can use to get out of the situation they are in, or else they would have taken it long ago.

And when it seems like your life revolves around when the next time you get beaten or smacked around by your parents, it's not too hard to fathom some kid becoming obsessed with how they will stop it.... and if he put 1,000 smacks as his limit..... well that's what happens. Some people in relationships will put a tollerance limit to how many times they are cheated on by their partner, or how many times they'll tollerate their so-called "Loved One" continually blowing them off to go hang out with their friends.

This kid had a limit to how many times he was going to put up with being beaten all the time and he took action.

Sounds like a kid who learned determination and the ability to see his actions through..... something you don't see to often in kids these days.

Maybe he is playing the system to get out of the crimes he commited, but one can only put up with abuse for so long before one takes action to defend themselves.

I imagine I need to hear more information on what caused this situation to occur, but in my view, the father had it coming.

Here's a question: How come I see many in here seem to justify the actions of an abused female at the hands of her husband or boyfriend who ends up killing them in the end, but see this situation in a totally different light and shun him for killing his father for what it would seem, constantly beating him for stupid and trivial things?

But hey..... at least he vented it out on the person who created the situation and didn't bother to go all Silence of the Lambs or Carl Stargher on innocent people.

Maybe now he can get help before he does.
 

Twila

Nanah Potato
Mar 26, 2003
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Despite his age, relatives suspected the boy immediately in the shootings. His grandfather told investigators: "If any 8-year-old was capable of doing this, [the boy] was", and the child's grandmother added: "I knew this was going to happen, they were too hard on [him]."

Looks like a case of lack of nurture combining with nature to create a very hard little boy. So much for just nurture or just nature.