Boy 'killed father after 1,000 smacks'

[AllHereTruth]

Source: Telegraph

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.

...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. 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, was", and the child's grandmother added: "I knew this was going to happen, they were too hard on ."

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

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3532306/Boy-killed-father-after-1000-smacks.html

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Maybe i completely missed it, but every other article about this story fails to bring to light the fact that the parents were 'spanking' him on a semi-daily basis. And that he was fed up.

The boy couldn't put up with more spankings/beatings
So he snapped.
With a gun.
His fathers gun.

EDIT: This kid stood up for himself the ONLY way he knew how. He had been shown how to use the gun, so he used it.

For fucks sake hes 8yrs old...

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Try him as an adult

And find him insane at the time of the murders due to having the development level of only an 8 year old child.

[AllHereTruth]

2. Really?

Hes 8 years old. He had been trained how to use a gun by his father. At the age of 8.

Hes 8 years old. He had 1,000 beatings. At the age of 8.

Hes 8 years old. He had no one to turn to to stop the attacks. At the age of 8.

How would you feel? alone. trapped. no where to turn. and ONLY 8 FUCKING YEARS OLD. What would you do? Would you honestly put up with beatings again, and again, and again 1,000 times over? REALLY?

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. You clearly didn't read my post very well

Never mind.

As to what I would do? I wouldn't shoot two people dead, for any reason, at any age I've passed through so far. IMHO.

[DUlover2909]

4. Aw come on. "For any reason"? You wouldn't defend yourself?

or your family? I don't mean to be rude, but there are some cases where using deadly force is necessary. This kid was probably traumatized and he thought he was acting in self defense. I did some wacky, unexplainable stuff when I was 8 years old.

[rucognizant]

13. There is NO ALTERNATIVE EXAMPLE........

in the media! Everything resolved in "fantasy"land", is resolved through violence! Killing! What's an 8 year old to do?
For want of anything better last night, I watched Hannah Montana. (I whistfully remember the good ole days when REAL entertainment like Carol Burnett, & Mary Tyler Moore were FREE!. Now that I pay $63. per month for TV THERE IS NOTHING ON TO WATCH! I just keep paying because of the stunning times, politically that we live in)
Hannah Montana is ugly, violent, unkind, training the kids to be divisive, prejudiced, ( not racially just toward the "other",like her "old" Father.......)
I also watched "Going MY Way" (1944) with Bing Crosby, Rise Stevens, Barry Fitzgerald.................It was about Catholic Priests trying to keep the church up and running, faith, hope, synchronicity, karma, What goes around comes around.) Whatever your faith or lack of.............it was uplifting, positive, wholesome, a good ROLE MODEL for living..............
But sadly, it was aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Unless one is a "cristian" teen, no way you will turn to that chanel!
WHen it came out in the 40's, it was just "the movie of the week" playing at your hometown movie theatre, so most people went to see it with out preselective prejudice and preobably benefited from the message ( Like Miracle on Main St.)
So Disney, TImer Warner, and the Christian Fundies are responsible for the severance of wholness, wellness in Amerika!

[shadowknows69]

17. I had a best friend/first love in school that was raped by an uncle when she was 8

And when she told me about this it was all she could do to keep me from going over there and killing him. Revenge is a pretty strong emotion.

[pnwmom]

5. How can you know what you would do if you were raised by that abusive father

and taught by that father to use that gun? And had easy access to it?

[judasdisney]

10. My father beat us over 1000 times, and if he was still alive

I'd subject him to my fantasies about what I'd do to Cheney

[saracat]

14. I don't support "spanking " but spanking is not the same as "beating"

and nowhere does it indicate that this child was "beaten" 1000 times. There does not seem to be any evidence of "abuse" that I have heard mentioned. No physical injuries etc.The nature of the "spankings" has yet to be determined.

[AllHereTruth]

15. To an 8 year old CHILD...

...with no escape, 1000 spankings will seem like the worst beating imaginable. The kind that never ends.

[pnwmom]

6. That sheds a different light on the situation.

But it's not surprising at all, unfortunately.

[MzYvonne]

7. his father and stepmother continued to smack him

Ok, why then did he shoot the other guy/

[Kolesar]

8. Because he was a witness (?)

The boy wanted to tell his "made up" story to law enforcement.

[kryckis]

9. I'm glad

I'm glad all forms of corporal punishment is banned where I live. I'd probably have shot someone too if they laid a hand on me when I was a kid. Not to mention 1000 times.

[Ptah]

11. Boy, 8, is offered a plea bargain in killings of father, second man

Boy, 8, is offered a plea bargain in killings of father, second man
By Bob Christie
the Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.30.2008

PHOENIX — 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, court records show.

Complete details of the offer weren't spelled out in a court filing posted on the Apache County Superior Court's Web site on Saturday.

But Apache County Attorney Criss Candelaria wrote 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."

Candelaria was responding to a defense motion seeking to block him from dropping one of two first-degree murder charges the boy is facing in the shooting deaths of his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, this month.

More at link:
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/269536.php

[NashVegas]

12. I Thought a Good Many Assumed He Was an Abuse Victim Off the Bat

So to speak.

[shadowknows69]

16. It appears that this monster was created,

Doesn't excuse it, but it makes more sense.

[katmandu2007]

18. He's a third grade child

and no child should be locked up for the rest of their lives, or be executed.
He belongs in therapy, not jail.