8-Year-Old Mercks Dad

An 8-year-old boy accused of killing his father and his father’s best friend will face two counts of premeditated murder, according to Arizona Police Chief Roy Melnick.

Police say the boy used a 22.-caliber rifle Wednesday to kill his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and another man, Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos.

The boy, whose name is being withheld, appeared in court Monday afternoon in St. Johns, Arizona, where the judge and attorneys discussed preliminary issues, including conducting a mental health evaluation of the boy and possible visitation options for his mother.

Police said Thursday that the boy had confessed to shooting the two men with a .22-caliber weapon. No motive was given.

"We solved the crime," said Melnick. "Now we have to solve the mystery of why."
Ron Wood, one of the boy's public defenders, said the defense is treating the boy's case "like any other first-degree murder case."

On the "Today" show, Melnick said there were no indications the boy had been in trouble before.

"There's no record of any problems in school, no reported abuse," he said.

Wood indicated that he, too, had not heard any assertions the boy had been abused, despite media assertions that abuse could be related to a motive in the case.

Police were called to scene when the boy went to a neighbor’s house and said he believed his father was dead.

Melnick said officers arrived at Romero's home within minutes of the shooting Wednesday in St. Johns, which has a population of about 4,000 and is 170 miles northeast of Phoenix. 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. Both men were employees of a construction company working at a power plant near St. Johns.

Meanwhile, the boy remains in custody at a juvenile detention facility, where he is attending school. No family member has come to claim him.

The child’s parents are divorced, and the boy lived with his father and stepmother(who’s refused to take custody).

The father, Romero, had consulted a Roman Catholic priest about whether the boy should have a gun and had taught him how to use firearms, the clergyman said.

Under Arizona law, charges can be filed against anyone 8 or older.

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 killing his mother.