Prosecutors Agree to Exclude Murder Confession by 8-Year-Old, With a Caveat
Prosecutors say they likely will agree to exclude a confession by an 8-year-old Arizona boy questioned about the murder of his father without the presence of a lawyer or family member.
Prosecutors in St. Johns, Ariz., say they have no objections to a motion to exclude the taped confession unless the boy takes the stand and contradicts his statements, report the Associated Press and CNN.
The boy, who turned 9 last month, is accused of shooting and killing his father, Vincent Romero, and Romero’s co-worker, Tim Romans, who rented a room in the Romero home.
In the video released to the media, the boy gives shifting accounts of what happened, at first denying he had anything to do with the shootings. Later he says he may have shot his father and Romans because they had already been shot and may have been suffering. At another point, the Times story says, the boy is asked if he was angry at his father the day the men were shot. “The first time I was mad at him,” he says, “but he was already shot, and I shot him again.”
Lab reports released Monday found that gun residue was on the boy’s clothing and his fingerprints were on a box of ammunition, the Arizona Republic reports.
