8 Year Old Arizona Boy Accused of Killing Father and Another Man with 22 Caliber Rifle

An 8 year old Arizona boy is accused of killing his father and another man. The 8 year old St. Johns, AZ 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 and it is uncertain on how prosecutors will try the minor. It is shocking and baffling as to how could an 8 year old child could do such a thing.

“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 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, which is about 170 miles northeast of Phoenix.

The boy had 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.”

The Arizona Republic: St. Johns boy, 8, suspected of double murder

Priest: Slain dad had taught boy, 8, to use guns

UPDATE I: VIDEO Confession by 8 Year Old Boy

What were police thinking? Interrogating a 3rd grader without the presence of a lawyer, parent or guardian!!! The police just made sure than nothing on the video, including the confession of the 8 year old to double murder will ever be allowed in a court of law.

In the grainy police interrogation video, the 8-year-old boy sits in a big leather chair as he makes a shocking statement: that he shot his father once, then a second time “so he wouldn’t suffer.”

The boy – whose name has not been released – was arrested Nov. 5 in St. Johns, Ariz., and charged with premeditated murder. But the newly-released video of his confession has stirred up a controversy. Experts question whether the third grader’s statement is legal because he was not read his rights and because no parent or guardian was present at the time.

Friday Poll Question Information: 8-Year-Old’s Confession Draws Fire

UPDATE II: Lawyers Drop One Murder Charge Against Boy Other Murder Charge Remains; Move Could Signal Cracks In Prosecution’s Case

The Apache County Attorney is seeking to dismiss one of two murder charges against an 8-year-old boy who is accused in the shooting deaths of his father and another man.

The motion filed late Friday seeks the dismissal of the first-degree murder charge stemming from the death of the boy’s father, 29-year-old Vincent Romero. The boy is also charged with first-degree murder in the death of 39-year-old Tim Romans, Romero’s roommate.

The motion explicitly allows the refiling of the charge if it is granted.

The prosecutor’s office wouldn’t explain its actions. The boy’s defense attorney, Benjamin Brewer, declined to comment Friday, citing a gag order in the case.

Prosecutors Seek To Drop One Murder Charge Against 8-year Old Shooting Suspect