Halo 3 Killer Teen Gets Life In Prison
17-year-old Daniel Petric will be over 40 by the time he's eligible for parole: the teen who shot his mother to death and wounded his father after being grounded from playing Halo 3 was found guilty in January and sentenced this week to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 23 years.
At the time, the judge seemed to blame video games, likening video games to drugs in their ability to addle the mind and render sane people incapable of recognizing that real-world death is, in fact, permanent:
This Court's opinion is that we don't know enough about these video games... It's my firm belief that after a while the same physiological responses occur that occur in the ingestion of some drugs. And I believe that an addiction to these games can do the same thing...The other dangerous thing about these games, in my opinion, is that when these changes occur, they occur in an environment that is delusional. Because you can shoot these aliens, and they're there again the next day. You have to shoot them again. And I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea, at the time he hatched this plot, that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever.
Luckily, Petric's sentencing didn't reflect the Judge's respawning-videogame-enemy theory of murder - in other words, that because of Halo 3, Petric somehow didn't believe that his parents would stay dead.
Petric, who tried to address the court but was unable to speak, will have plenty of time during his 23-year-minimum sentence to reflect on who or what is responsible for his mother's death: himself or Master Chief.
Halo 3 Teen Killer Gets Life in Murder of Mom... Parole in 23 Years [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 16 June 2009
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: daniel petric, halo 3, halo 3 murder, killing, murder, trial
Oh my gosh, sorry if I'm late to the ridiculing of the judge's ridiculous words. Unless the defense lawyer did a bang-up job of convincing the court that games were the cause, then I would say the judge is really ignorant. Again, like the article, good thing the verdict didn't reflect the judge's thoughts.
From one crack addict (Royalchaos2) to another (Halo 3 teen killer): "I can stop any time I want. Really man, I can!"
When are you losers going to wake up?
I found the judge's comments thought provoking. However the kid's going where he belongs.
Some people really misjudge things and how people behave coz of video games. There are other factors that affects one's behavior such as the environment, food/drugs intake, social media and more. Don't hate the game, hate the person playing the game who doesn't know how to control himself.
In all the discussion of whether or not the video game was to blame, it seems we're all forgetting that a woman is dead - a mother who probably thought she was doing the right thing in caring for her son by limiting his gaming time. In my opinion, the court was right to imprison this guy, protecting the community from *whatever* chemical or emotional flaw caused him to pull a gun on his parents and start blasting.
Prison isn't death - he still has the chance to make something of his life. Certainly, many of his freedoms and opportunities have been taken away, but if he's truly remorseful he'll dedicate his life to something worthwhile that would have made his mother proud.
How the fuck did he get access to a gun in the first place?
This is what happens when you live in a society that normalises gun ownership. I am so thankful that Australia got rid of guns after the Port Arthur massacre. "Social" gun use is totally unnecessary.