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Teen kills his mom and wounds his dad over videogame.

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victra♥

victra♥

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ELYRIA, Ohio (Jan. 13) - Although a teenager's obsession with a violent video game may have warped his sense of reality, the boy is guilty of murdering his mother and wounding his father after they took "Halo 3" away from him, a judge ruled Monday.
"I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever," Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge said.

Rejecting an insanity defense, a judge in Elyria, Ohio, ruled Monday that a 17-year-old was guilty of fatally shooting his mother and wounding his father after they took away his "Halo 3" video game. Daniel Petric, here in 2007, faces the possibility of being sentenced to life without parole.

Nonetheless, Burge rejected the defense attorneys' argument that Petric, 17, was not guilty by reason of insanity.

The defense didn't contest that Petric shot his parents in October 2007 after they took the game away from him, but insisted that the teen's youth and addiction made him less responsible.

Petric may have been addicted, but the evidence also showed he planned the crime for weeks, said Burge, who found the teenager guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and other charges.

Tried as an adult, Petric faces a maximum possible penalty of life in prison without parole. The judge didn't set a sentencing date.

The teen's mother, Susan Petric, 43, died of a gunshot wound to the head. Her husband, Mark Petric, a minister at New Life Assembly of God in Wellington, also was shot in the head but survived.

After the verdict was announced, Petric turned to look at his father seated behind him in the courtroom. Mark Petric, who previously said he has forgiven his son, gave an encouraging nod.

Mark Petric and other relatives left the court without comment.

Prosecutors said Petric planned to kill his parents because he was angry that his father would not allow him to play the video game, in which players shoot alien monsters that have taken over the Earth.

On the night of the shooting, Petric used his father's key to open a lockbox and remove a 9 mm handgun and the game.

Mark Petric testified that his son came into the room and asked: "Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you." He testified that he expected a pleasant surprise. Then his head went numb from the gunshot.

Deputy prosecuting attorney Anthony Cillo argued during the trial that the teenager had planned to make it appear to be a murder-suicide by putting the gun in his father's hand.
Defense Attorney James Kersey said that when the teenager fled the grisly scene, he only took one item with him: the "Halo 3" game.

Bungie LLC, once part of Microsoft, developed the Xbox 360-exclusive Halo 3, and Microsoft owns the game's intellectual property. Microsoft declined to comment beyond a statement: "We are aware of the situation and it is a tragic case."
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Full article

What are peoples thoughts on this? I can't believe this. Shooting his parents in the head, and then leaving the house with Halo 3. It's just sick. I hate people.
 
M

Middi

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This is pretty jacked up.
Even though it is horrible, I can't help but think of the anti violent video game people using this like crazy.
 
Viox

Viox

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Omfg thats ******* disgusting.. brat. Hope he gets immense punishment.
 
Slasherx

Slasherx

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Wow...
I have Halo3 and its fun online but WTF?
If I was the dad I would send him somewhere so they can lock him up forever...
 
victra♥

victra♥

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kirbypika

kirbypika

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Samusbrawler said:
Whaa? What person in their right mind would kill themselves over video games?
Then again..... after seeing this.....
Click to expand...
Oh sure, many involve World of Warcraft... go look some up.


EDIT: To give you an example, theres this kid in China, (they play a lot of WoW) and apparently his account got hacked. So he wrote a farewell letter to his parents and proceeded to go to the top story of their apartment complex and jump. I saw it on TV about 3 years ago. They even had the elevator security camera footage of the kid's last moments.
 
D

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for any melee players, that's where vidjogamer lives. lol.

yay, someone else our taxes pay for in prison. death sentence and be done w/ it please. waste of money. if it's no longer used as a correction facility, it has lost its purpose.
 
victra♥

victra♥

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DTP

DTP

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kirbypika said:
Oh sure, many involve World of Warcraft... go look some up.
Click to expand...
Oh right, I forgot about that game.
Yeah I believe it now lol
I've heard what WoW can do to unstable people......
 
Evil Eye

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That kid knew exactly what he was doing. Video games are not a mind altering substance. What little validity there is to drugs and alcohol as a legal defence does NOT apply to this goddamn "video game defence".

I'd have to agree with Umbreon. If someone is going to rot in prison forever (and this kid should), capital punishment is justified, if it can be dealt in a swift manner. The unfortunate reality is most people sit on Death Row for a life sentence's worth of time anyway and are THEN executed, making them a much larger drain on the system.
 
Teran

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Videogames don't kill people.
Psychopaths kill people.
 
Sporkman

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As for how I feel, pretty gutting to be the dad, I mean you try and implement some kind of quality control and this is what you get :urg:
 
Teran

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His parents should have beaten him more.
 
Mic_128

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"My parents took ______ away from me so I attacked them"

No matter what you stick in, you get a violent moron.
 
Blackadder

Blackadder

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Chis said:
Also this. Definitely this.
Click to expand...
Because people with such violent mindsets really dig being beaten.

Not only that, but you'll find many serial killers have highly abusive parents in their past. I'm not saying that a smack on the arse is going to set anyone off, but I've a feeling that this is less about the parents parenting style, more about this kid just being... ****ed. Mental illness can't be solved/prevented as easily as "beat him!".

Not that I'm defending him.
 
M

Mazaloth

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This is one of the most sick things I had heard in my life.

Once more it really does show the decline of stability in kids minds these days. I feel bad for the dad too, he is really a kind man. Obsession is sick, but this is horrid.
 
M.K

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What a dumb ****, this doesn't help our community at all.
Just another horrific stereotype, though it doesn't sound like Halo 3 was the absolute cause, since he "planned it for weeks".
 
Takumaru

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Mentally unstable people shouldn't do anything they can become addicted or attached to. There's no way to screen for instability without a psychologist. God, don't judge me for this but I think I can kind of see where the kid is coming from. His entire world probably revolved around Halo and his parents interfered with that world. So his natural instinct is to remove what's disrupting it. I'm not justifying what he did at all, it's one of the most horrible things I can imagine. But still, I feel bad for him because this whole thing could've been avoided. Although I suppose the holocaust could've been avoided too... =/

What I'm trying to say is it's so easy to just say "wow this kid is really ****ed up" "he deserves this" "it's stupid to kill people over a game" and blah blah blah. But it's another thing to try and get inside his head and figure out why this happened without just writing the kid off as a psychopath. I guess I'm just too soft.
 
Church

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Did anyone see the picture of the ****er? He looks like a god **** mutant. Like others have said, people like this deserve the death sentence, why spend tax dollars on them letting them rot in prison? I mean, shooting your parents in the head because of Halo 3? Tomorrow some unsuspecting parent is going to get fsmashed out of the top story window because their parents took away Smash Bros.

Also did anybody notice the AOL poll? "How concerned are you about violence in video games?"

55% Very
24% Somewhat
21% Not at all

Granted these are people that read AOL news on a daily basis but everytime something like this happens the situation gets a little ridiculous. These people are ****ing idiots and if they can kill over a videogame they were probably bound to kill at another point in time anyway.
 
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