121
submitted 1 year ago by deconstruct@lemm.ee to c/news@lemmy.world

An 11-year-old Wisconsin boy accused of murdering his mother has been ordered to stand trial.

The boy is charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The district attorney's office is seeking to try him as an adult. The court has ordered that the boy's name not be revealed because he may still be tried as a child.

In July, the court found the boy competent, according to court records.

Milwaukee Detective Timothy Keller testified in court on Tuesday about speaking with the boy about his mother's death.

The detective said he questioned the boy the next day and the then 10-year-old boy admitted shooting her but called it an accident, according to WISN.

"[The boy] stated that he took up a shooting stance and was pointing the gun at her as she was walking towards him and asking him to put it down. And that's when he indicated that he fired the gun with his intent to scare her by shooting the wall behind her," Keller testified.

"He had made a purchase on his mother's Amazon account for some virtual reality goggles the morning after this homicide occurred. And [family] were concerned because he had had an argument with her about whether he could have these prior to the homicide," Keller said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't think he should be charged as an adult but I think there's a gap wider than my mom's ass between "charged as an adult" and "it's an accident just let him go". Even if you didn't intend to kill someone pointing a gun at them and pulling the trigger isn't an accident. There needs to be an intervention here, both for the health of the kid and the safety of other people. This isn't a whoopsiedoodle, he was mad so he shot at her.

[-] Hardeehar@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

I agree, appropriate action should be taken. Just what exactly falls into that bucket though?

You can't put an 11 year old in jail for man slaughter (I would call it that, not murder). Juvi? I really am not qualified enough to know my ass from a hole in the ground here.

What do you think?

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

following the law as written for an 11 year old defendant would be a good start. I'll admit to also being unqualified but I don't need to know exactly what point a person is fully competent to be treated as an adult by the judicial system to know that an 11 year old hasn't reached that point just like I don't need to know the exact coordinates of the Mexico-US border to know that I, as someone in Pennsylvania, haven't crossed it.

[-] Hardeehar@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Isn't that the point of the calling someone a "minor", though? Decision making capacity isn't all there yet, higher chance of the stupid, believing you can fly, that sort of thing.

The article said he was aiming for the wall behind the mom. Maybe he thought he was some kind of ace combat special forces or something because of the VR headset stuff.

this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
121 points (95.5% liked)

News

23301 readers
1004 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS