Answer: you bet.

Town stunned as 8-year-old charged in two killings

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona (AP) -- It's a crime that police officers in a small eastern Arizona community can hardly fathom yet have to deal with: an 8-year-old charged in the fatal shootings of his father and another man.

"Who would think an 8-year-old kid could kill two adults?" St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick asked Friday.

The crime that unfolded Wednesday evening sent shock waves through St. Johns, a community of about 4,000 people northeast of Phoenix. The boy had no disciplinary record at school, and there was no indication he had any problems at home, prosecutors said.

"It was such a tragedy," said the boy's defense attorney, Benjamin Brewer. "You have two people dead; you have an 8-year-old in jail. It tugs at the heart strings. It's a shocker, no doubt about it."

On Friday, a judge determined that there was probable cause to show that the boy fatally shot his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos with a .22-caliber rifle. The boy faces two counts of premeditated murder.

Melnick said officers arrived at Romero's home within minutes of the shooting Wednesday. They found one victim just outside the front door and the other dead in an upstairs room.

Romans had been renting a room at the Romero house, prosecutors said. The two men were employees with a construction company that had a contract to do work at the Salt River Project power plant near St. Johns, about 170 miles northeast of Phoenix.

The boy went to a neighbor's house and said he "believed that his father was dead," said Apache County attorney Brad Carlyon. Police later obtained a confession from the boy, Melnick said.

Brewer said police overreached in questioning the boy without representation from a parent or attorney and did not advise him of his rights.

"They became very accusing early on in the interview," Brewer said. "Two officers with guns at their side, it's very scary for anybody, for sure an 8-year-old kid."

A judge has ordered a psychological evaluation of the child, who was being held at the Apache County juvenile detention center.

Prosecutors aren't sure where the case is headed, Carlyon said.

"There's a ton of factors to be considered and weighed, including the juvenile's age," he said. "The counterbalance against that, the acts that he apparently committed."

Carlyon said the boy had no record of complaints with Arizona Child Protective Services.

"He had no record of any kind, not even a disciplinary record at school," he said. "He has never been in trouble before."

City Manager Greg Martin said the community was "saddened" and "shocked."

"Not something that happens very often and hopefully never happens again," he said. "It's been on their minds ever since it happened."

FBI statistics show that instances of children younger than 11 committing homicides are very rare. According to recent FBI supplementary homicide reports, there were at least three such cases each year in 2003, 2004 and 2005; there were at least 15 in 2002. More recent statistics weren't available, nor were details of the cases.

Earlier this year in Arizona, prosecutors in Cochise County filed first-degree murder charges against a 12-year-old boy accused of shooting his mother to death.

Under Arizona law, a juvenile under 8 years old is treated as a dependent child. Charges can be filed against anyone 8 or older, which Melnick argued are warranted in this case. He said the child didn't act on the "spur of the moment," though he didn't elaborate on what the motive might have been.

Defense attorney Mike Piccarreta, who is not involved in the case, said that each case has to be considered on its own merits but that it would be hard for him to comprehend that an 8-year-old has the mental capacity to understand the act of murder and its implications.

"If they actually prosecute the guy, it's a legal minefield," he said. "And, two, society has to make a decision as to whether they want to start using the criminal justice system to deal with 8-year-olds. That doesn't mean you don't have a troubled kid."

Wednesday's homicides were the first in at least four years in the community where most people know one another, Melnick said, noting that before that, no one had been killed there since 20 years ago.

Romero had full custody of the child. The boy's biological mother was visiting St. Johns over the weekend from Mississippi and returned to Arizona after the shootings, Carlyon said.

Brewer, the defense attorney, said the child "seems to be in good spirits."

"He's scared," he said. "He's trying to be tough, but he's scared."

Charged Boy Tallied Spankings

POSTED: 1:20 pm MST November 26, 2008
UPDATED: 6:04 am MST November 27, 2008

ST. JOHNS, Ariz. -- An Arizona boy charged in the shooting deaths of his father and another man kept a ledger of his spankings and told a Child Protective Services worker that when he reached 1,000, that would be his limit, according to a newly released police report.

In an affidavit for a search warrant, Sgt. Lucas Rodriguez writes that the boy "is believed to have made ledgers and or communicated in the form of writings about his intentions." He said the boy tallied the spankings on a piece of paper.

Police have said the boy planned and methodically carried out the killings of his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, who rented a room in the family's two-story home in the small eastern Arizona community of St. Johns.

Documents show that Romero was shot four times, and Romans was shot six times.

In another police report released Wednesday, the boy's grandmother told police that if any 8-year-old was capable of the crimes, the boy was.

Other documents were released Wednesday by the Apache County prosecutor's office. In one of them, St. Johns police Chief Roy Melnick said that Liz Romero, also known as Liz Castillo, shouted out angrily when she was told the boy would be arrested in the Nov. 5 killings.

She said she "knew this would happen" and said she had a feeling the boy committed the crimes.

"They were too hard on him," the police report quoted her as saying. "He spent the night in my bed cuddling up to me. I had a feeling he did it."

She also said "if any 8-year-old boy is capable of doing this it's (the boy)."

The boy was released from juvenile detention on Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with his mother.

Judge Michael Roca granted a 48-hour furlough to the boy last week during a hearing in Apache County. The boy is to return to custody by noon on Friday.

If he doesn't, Roca says an arrest warrant will be issued for the boy and his mother, Eryn Bloomfield.

An attorney for the boy, Benjamin Brewer, says he's hopeful the boy will have a good time while he's out.

Roca has said the boy must stay within a certain area in Apache County and no knives, video games or cable television can be in the home where he's staying.

A status conference in the case is scheduled Dec. 8.


hmmm, perhaps I won't spank my kids.

There's something really odd about this case, I can't quite put my finger on it. At first I thought he had to have been falsely accused, but those statements from family members cast a different light on the situation.



Assuming they did get to 1,000, and he's eight years old, that's something like one spanking every other day.

It's the only thing I want so much.

The big question should be whether it was "spankings" or "beatings".

bare hand spankings or the dreaded wooden spoon?

clenched fist beatings or nasty belt whippings?

This case is absurd on a few different levels...

One main factor, the boy was not read his Miranda Rights at the time of the questioning, nor had a guardian et al in attendance which should make any possible tangible evidence/statements difficult to use against him.

The videotape to me, shows coercing to a certain extent. The footage that I watched, with the boys demeanor, it seems as if he doesn't really understand the magnitude of what is occuring, and is answering the questions through an almost fear, rather then truth.

But, then again, these are merely my comments.

This is some bizarre shit.