http://www.theage.com.au/world/boy-12--on-trial-for-murdering-neonazi-father-20121030-28grs.html
Boy, 12, on trial for murdering neo-Nazi father Date October 30, 2012 - 12:40PM Victim ... Jeff Hall at the 2011 conference of the National Socialist Movement in Pemberton, New Jersey Photo: New York Times A US boy, who was 10 when he shot his neo-Nazi father dead, could become the youngest person ever jailed in California if he's held responsible. Now 12, the boy is on trial for murdering 32-year-old Jeff Hall, a regional leader of the National Socialist Movement. He decided, as he put it, it was time to end the father-son thing. Prosecutors want the boy kept locked up for as long as possible, citing a history of violent behaviour including choking a teacher with a telephone cord. 'Conditioned to violence' ... the defence says Hall's son did not know his act was wrong. "In reality, sometimes kids - just like all of us - do things because they want to, and he decided, as he put it, it was time to end the father-son thing," said Michael Soccio, chief deputy district attorney. "This child started at five-years-old being expelled from school for violence. " ... his violence started way before his dad ever joined any Nazi party." The boy's public defender, Matthew Hardy, told the New York Times his client has neurological and psychological problems and was exposed to neo-Nazi "conditioning" at home. "He's been conditioned to violence," Hardy told the newspaper. "You have to ask yourself: Did this kid really know that this act was wrong based on all those things?" Opening statements are expected to begin on Tuesday in the two-week trial of the boy, who is not being charged as an adult. Hall had once taken the boy - his eldest of five children - on a US-Mexico border patrol trip and showed him how to use a gun, according to papers filed by police against the boy's stepmother alleging child endangerment and criminal storage of a gun. Last year, the boy told investigators he went downstairs and shot his sleeping father before returning upstairs and hiding the gun under his bed, according to court documents. He told authorities he thought his father was going to leave his stepmother, and he didn't want the family to split up, Soccio said. The boy's stepmother told authorities that Hall had hit, kicked and yelled at his son for being too loud or getting in the way. Hall and the boy's biological mother had previously slugged through a divorce and custody dispute in which each had accused the other of child abuse. If a judge finds the boy murdered Hall, he could be held in state custody until he is 23, said Bill Sessa, spokesman for California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "We don't have anybody that young," Sessa said. "We have had 12-year-olds in the past, but it's rare." Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/boy-12--on-trial-for-murdering-neonazi-father-20121030-28grs.html#ixzz2AkvNQXZ7 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
