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Murderous 8-year-old Story Gets Uglier
An 8-year-old St. Johns boy charged with double homicide may have kept a written record of spankings he received at home, vowing that the 1,000th would be his limit, according to police records released Friday. A search affidavit signed by Sgt. Lucas Rodriguez says the child "is believed to have made ledgers and/or communicated in the form of writings about his intentions." "(The boy) told a CPS (Child Protective Services) worker that when he reached one thousand spankings, that would be his limit," the affidavit says. "(The boy) kept a tally of his spankings on a piece of paper." The juvenile is charged with shooting his 29-year-old father and a family friend, 39-year-old Timothy Romans, at the family's home in St. Johns on Nov. 5. One day after the killings, the third-grader gave police a statement that investigators described as a confession. In it, he says he was spanked by his stepmother at his father's request the day before the homicides because he did not bring home some school papers. The newly released documents also say family members were not surprised when Police Chief Roy Melnick informed them that the boy had admitted shooting his dad. In a written report, Melnick says he and another officer "comforted them as best we could." After several minutes," the report continues, "(the grandmother) shouted out in an angry and loud tone, 'I knew this would happen. They were too hard on (the boy). I knew (he) did it. He spent the night in my bed cuddling up to me. I had a feeling he did it. If any 8-year-old boy is capable of doing this, it's (him).' " The grandfather then repeated, "If any 8-year-old was capable of doing this, (he) was." The grandparents were too overcome with grief to explain further, the report said. Because of the suspect's age, The Arizona Republic is not identifying him or his family members by name. Search-warrant records are contained in a police report made available by the Apache County Attorney's Office. Those records do no include crime-lab reports, which might identify fingerprints on shell casings, gunshot residue on a suspect's clothing or ballistics from the murder weapon. However, the case file contains numerous other revelations. Among them: The boy's father was shot four times, twice in the head. Romans was hit six times. The shot in one of his two head wounds was fired at close range. In his statement to police, the boy had said that he shot his father and Romans twice each to stop their suffering after they had been wounded by an unknown person. The victims' co-workers, friends and family told detectives that the two men recently had been involved in minor disputes with colleagues at a nearby power plant and with men at a local bar. Police in San Carlos, where Romans grew up, told St. Johns investigators that he had a prior drug arrest and was suspected of minor drug dealing. Friends of Romans told St. Johns police that he was getting a divorce. Juvenile-booking records show the 8-year-old had no history of psychiatric care and was not on any medications. They list the boy at 4 feet tall, and 65 pounds. Since the ordeal began, published reports have quoted a number of psychologists and criminologists who suggest that a child of the suspect's age would be capable of killing only if he had been subjected to serious trauma. The search-warrant records contain the first public disclosure that the boy was in contact with CPS workers and may have endured regular corporal punishment. The records do not mention a diary of spankings. However, the seized evidence includes a spelling worksheet with blood on it and another sheet of paper labeled, "Story (boy's first name) the Family." Because CPS cases are confidential and an Apache County judge imposed a gag order, it remains unclear when and why the boy may have discussed spankings with a caseworker. Investigative records describe how the child sat in the St. Johns police station after his arrest, chewing on a plastic cup. After a long silence, he told an officer, "They're going to send me to juvie, I know it." Within minutes, he was booked into the Apache County Juvenile Detention Center. Another police report, filed a day later, says the boy asked to see a court security officer's phone while awaiting a hearing. "He then said, 'My lawyer has a phone like that, and my dad had one, too. But he's not going to need it. He's not coming back.' " The boy, who is on furlough with his birth mother over the Thanksgiving holiday, faces juvenile charges of premeditated murder. County Attorney Criss Candelaria must decide within two weeks whether he will seek to prosecute him as an adult. Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-11-27 |
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