Arizona boy who admitted killing father sentenced to treatment

Arizona boy who admitted killing father sentenced to treatment

www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- A 10-year-old Arizona boy who admitted to shooting and killing his father and another man in 2008 was sentenced Thursday to "in-patient treatment" that could go on for several years, according to the prosecutor.

The boy pleaded guilty in February to one count of negligent homicide in exchange for a plea deal that dropped the two counts of murder he was charged with initially.

The boy was accused of killing his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Tim Romans, 39, who rented a room in

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Wow... this boy shot 2 people when he was 8 years old... I think there are serious sociological questions to be asked now that this is occurring more and more often in the land of the free...

Most importantly, I think the question we should all be asking ourselves is this very elementary and basic one:

How in the world does an 8 year old get access to a gun?

Peace,

Magnum

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm not sure if it's happening more often or it's just more publicly broadcast nationwide when it was an isolated incident.

Not to lessen the seriousness of the crime. The child clearly has some psychological problems whether abused or medically deficient is unclear.

Warning signs are not always easy to spot but more often than not a child's psychological status if overlooked by bad parenting- something that I would consider on the rise.

It was likely a combination of factors including he felt abused, had psychological issues, possibly delusional of reality, had some level of anger problem and was exposed to unlocked firearms.

I almost feel bad for the child considering what they will put him through. Electrical convulsive therapy, pharmaceutical therapy, cognitive therapy and locked in a padded room for the next decade.

A scary thought is that he will more than likely be released upon findings that he is "cured of psychological ailments" in 10-20 years. He will come out a drugged up, brain damaged, half-adult unexposed to the future world and used to leaning on the prison system for his meals.

Hell, I said I would kill myself at ten years old which bought me a lifetime dependance on pharmaceuticals. This kid is going to be drugged till' his teeth fall out (literally) and gets tardive dyskinesia. His brain didn't even get to develop...to bad a loving family and a therapist isn't an option.

Wait a sec, you only have to be 8 over there to be held criminally responsible for your actions? Thats insane. No doubt that kids can tell whats basically right and wrong at that age, but you are nowhere near emotionally developed enough to understand the full extent of your actions.

But yea, that is going to be one messed up kid! Especially when you consider he must have serious issues leading up to the shooting, and now for the forseeable future he's going to be taken completely out of the loop in terms of growing up & having a chance to develop into a normal(ish) adult.
Not saying they should have just set him free of course, but that kid more than likely wont ever be 'normal'. Shame.

Oh and here's a link to the minimum ages other countries have for holding someone criminally responsible: www.digitalspy.co.uk...

My eight year old forgets to wash her hands after pooping. She knows its the right thing to do, but she is EIGHT.

Eight isn't an adult, in any way. Their brains, develop, nothing about them is adult like and that should ALWAYS be part of the equation when looking at what they've done.

The kid could be a psychopath. He could be anything. He could just be a kid who did something REALLY stupid.

There are people on this board probably who did things that were criminal - I bet this board has at least one person who before ten burned down some building. Intentionally even, though they probably didn't appreciate what it was they were doing fully. Bet they aren't a "bad" "wrecked" person.

That boy should be receiving therepy for what he had to go through.
Personally, I think he confessed simply because he wanted the whole interrogation ordeal to be over. He was scared and probably just wanted to go home.

From what I've heard and read about this case it sounds like the occupants of the white car shot the men and sped off. The boy went home and found them bleeding but not dead. This would explain why he told the police that he shot his father because he didn't want to see him suffer.

St. Johns Arizona is smack in the middle of Indian territory. That part of Arizona is almost all Indian land,poor, and I don't think any town within a 500 mile radius is over 20,000 population. My point? Domestic violence and drug abuse are very serious problems in that region. Domestic violence calls to the Sheriffs office though are treated more like a nuisence than a crime. More than likely the boy didn't want to go straight home on Mondays and Wedenesdays until his mother got home because of one or both of those issues. Sounds like the mother was the bread winner there as neither men, I believe, had a job. Because of drugs? Possibly. And the white car? Drugs? Possibly. Domestic violence because the men didn't feel like men because the woman worked? Possibly There were other houses and people nearby so the chances of someone else hearing or seeing something are very good.

So if all I said was true, why would adults let an 8 year old take the fall for murder? Why do some gang members have kids sell dope for them? Because if the kid gets caught, he won't go to jail but an adult would. No one will ever know for sure because, as I said earlier, St Johns is a small town in a very tough region of the U.S. to live in. Sometimes it's better to just keep your mouth shut about certain things.

Even if all this happened the way I described, which I honestly don't know, I'm not trying to justify it. All I'm saying is that this scenario sounds alot more plausible than an 8 year old kid shooting dead 2 adults in cold blood for no reason at all.

Or it could be that the kid was sick and tired of verbal and/or physical abuse.


At one point the Sheriff said " we solved the crime, now we have to find out why" Personally, I think it's the other way around. Find out why the men were shot, and then you'll find your shooter. But, seeing how it's St Johns, I don't think people want to know why.

As far as why there were guns readily available? I too live in Northern Arizona in a rural community. Owning a gun is simply part of the way of life here. True, it should have been locked and put up, but it wasn't.



Just my 2 cents. Peace