‘Halo 3’ Addict Murdered His Mother And Shot His Father To Get Video Game Back
Posted January 13, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
You may remember the tragic story of a 15-year-old Barrie boy who ran away from home when his parents took his Xbox away. Brandon Crisp was later found dead in November after an autopsy showed he’d fallen from a tree.
And now another terrible incident surrounding a video game addiction has surfaced, this one with a very different outcome. A 17-year-old boy from Elyria, Ohio has been found guilty of murdering his mother and wounding his father, after his folks tried to take away his “Halo 3” video game (top left).
His lawyers had argued that Daniel Petric was not guilty by reason of insanity after he shot his parents when they took the computer competition away from him in October 2007. But the judge didn’t buy it, noting instead that the boy appeared to have deliberately plotted a murderous revenge to get the object of his addiction back.
Evidence showed that the young man was seething and planned the attack for weeks before carrying it out. On that fateful night, he stole a key and opened his dad’s lockbox, removed a 9 mm handgun – and the video game that had been shut up inside – and walked into his parent’s bedroom.
What happened next was chilling. “Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you,” his father, Mark Petric, testified his son told them. The next thing he heard was several loud bangs as the trigger was pulled.
The boy’s 43-year-old mother died but his dad survived.
The district attorney claimed the youngster was hoping to make it look like a murder-suicide but his plans were foiled when his father failed to succumb to his wounds. When Petric fled the house after the shooting, he only took one item with him – his recovered “Halo 3.”
His father is a church minister who claims he’s since forgiven his son. When the judge confirmed the verdict on Monday, the boy turned and got a sympathetic nod from his dad. He was then led away and taken back to jail.
Because he was found guilty of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, the boy could face life in prison with no chance of parole. There’s been no date set yet for the final sentencing.
