Boy found responsible for killing neo-Nazi father - BBC News

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14 January 2013 Last updated at 13:34 ET

A California boy has been found responsible for murder in the shooting death of his neo-Nazi father at age 10.

The ruling means that the boy, now 12, could be sent to a juvenile prison until age 23.

Prosecutors argued he killed his father, Jeff Hall, 32, to stop him separating from the boy's stepmother.

Defence lawyers said the boy, who had grown up in an abusive environment, was too young to know right from wrong when he pulled the trigger in May 2011.

Hall was shot at point-blank range as he slept on a sofa in the family's home.

In her ruling, Riverside County Judge Jean Leonard said she had considered the boy's age, his understanding of the crime and his "long history of abuse and neglect".

"This was not a naive boy," Judge Leonard said, according to NBC Los Angeles. "[He] knew what he was doing was wrong at the time of the crime."

At issue in the case was whether there was premeditation.

The boy's younger sister supported the prosecution's case by saying that her elder sibling had plotted the shooting days in advance.

The boy had also told police he did not expect to get in trouble because he had seen an episode of the television show Criminal Minds in which a child killed an abusive father and was not arrested.

Prosecutors also noted that the boy had a history of violence dating back to nursery school when he stabbed a teacher with a pencil.

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