TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: video games

  • Teen shot both parents over Halo 3

    Daniel Petric killed mother, shot father because they took Halo 3 video game, prosecutors say:

    17-year-old Daniel Petric of Ohio is on trial for shooting his parents after his father forbade him from playing Halo 3. His father, Mark Petric, survived but his mother, Susan Petric, die from her wounds.

    Petric had snuck out of the house to buy the game when he returned he was caught by his dad who took the game away from him. His father put the game in the same lockbox he kept a 9mm handgun.

    A month later Petric was able to break into the box. He took the gun and shot both of his parents. He told them to close their eyes because he had a surprise for them and that’s when he shot them both. He then placed the gun in his dad’s hand and said “Hey Dad, here’s your gun. Take it.”

    When Daniel’s older sister arrived at the house with her husband Daniel fled the scene taking the game with him.

    He is being tried as an adult.

    Now the question is did the game make him like this. After all Halo 3 is a fairly violent game to non-gamers. However, the answer to that question, of course, is no. I’ve posted various stories about teens who have killed their parents and rarely are video games involved. Usually, it’s over a boyfriend or girlfriend or some other teenage addiction that they allegedly couldn’t live without.

    Unfortunately, this is another case of a teen who thought that their alleged problems were more important than life itself. I wonder how our teens became so selfish.

  • Another guilty plea in ‘Mortal Kombat’ death

    Teen in Johnstown ”Mortal Kombat’ child death pleads guilty:

    19-year-old Lamar Roberts has pleaded guilty to child abuse and recklessly causing the death of 7-year-old Zoe Garcia.

    This is the so-called ‘Mortal Kombat’ killings because Roberts and his girlfriend and Zoe’s sister Heather Trujillo, beat Zoe to death while allegedly mimic moves from Mortal Kombat.

    Roberts is looking at 16-48 years behind bars. Trujillo had previously pleaded guilty.

    Again this had nothing to do with video games. If it wasn’t Mortal Kombat it would have been pro wrestling or some movie that they would have blamed it on. They were just two violent kids, nothing more.

  • An Attorney General who gets it

    stick

    AG offers video game rating tips for parents:

    Imagine that. A state Attorney General and a Democrat to boot that isn’t overreacting about video games.

    Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has actually reminded parents to check the ESRB ratings of games before buying them for children.

    A politician with common sense? *gasp* Our hats off to AG Hood.

    Thanks to Game Politics for the tip.

  • Jack Thompson Disbarred

    As reported by Gamepolitics, Jack Thompson has been permanently disbarred and fined $43,675.

    And the world just became a little brighter.

  • The One Who Shall Not Be Named sues for NIU shooter’s game history

    GamePolitics.com » Blog Archive » Jack Thompson, Seeking Killer’s Video Game History, Threatens NIU with Lawsuit:

    Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request production of copies of all documents that reveal Steven Kazmierczak’s play of violent video games, including but not limited to the use of his computer to play Counter-Strike, which he apparently, according to the New York Post, used to rehearse for his Valentine’s Day Massacre at NIU.

    Does it ever stop with him?

  • Bail reduction denied in ‘Mortal Kombat’ killing

    Bail reduction denied in ‘Mortal Kombat’ killing

    Suspect in girl’s death denied bail reduction:

    A bail reduction request for Heather Trujillo has been denied. She’s currently being held on $100K bond in the death of her sister Zoe Garcia. Trujillo and her 17-year-old boyfriend Lamar Roberts killed Garcia by allegedly imitating moves from a Mortal Kombat game.

    16-year-old Trujillo has been charged as an adult and faces up to 48 years behind bars.

  • Dana Trujillo arrested

    Dana Trujillo arrested

    Dana Trujillo, mother of murder victim Zoe Garcia arrested:

    Dana Trujillo, the mother of both Zoe Garcia and Heather Trujillo, was arrested this past Thursday on child abuse charges. Zoe Garcia was the 7-year-old killed by her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, Lamar Roberts, when they supposedly practiced ‘Mortal Kombat’ moves on Zoe. Heather Trujillo and Roberts are both being charged as adults for Zoe’s murder.

    Dana Trujillo was arrested on an outstanding warrant from 2003 in New Mexico.

    But the charges against the girls’ mother, Dana Trujillo, stem back to 2003, when Dana and three daughters lived in Socorro, N.M. Police in the small New Mexico town said Dana Trujillo is suspected of leaving her children, — then ages 12, 4. and 3.

    “There was no assault or battery,” said Capt. Mike Winders of the Socorro Police Department. “The crime was that she was not feeding or caring for them properly, and that’s why we issued the warrant.”

    It’s obvious that Mortal Kombat had nothing to do with Zoe’s murder, but the media just can’t let that go. It just shows how clueless they still are about video games. It’s not like they haven’t been around for 30+ years or anything.

  • Social Services probed after the death of Zoe Garcia

    Social Services probed after the death of Zoe Garcia

    Weld County probed in deaths of 7-year-olds:

    Weld County’s Department of Social Services of Colorado is being investigated in the wake of the death of Zoe Garcia. As I’ve mentioned, Garcia was killed by her sister Heather Trujillo and her boyfriend Lamar Roberts when they beat Zoe to death while allegedly imitating Mortal Kombat.

    Neighbors had contacted Weld County DSS with concerns about Zoe’s well-being, but apparently, DSS didn’t do enough. Yet, I’m sure some people will be too busy pointing fingers at a video game rather than a failure of the system and a horrendous family situation.

  • More on the death of Zoe Garcia

    More on the death of Zoe Garcia

    Days before custody talks, father learns child is dead:

    This is an article about how Zoe Garcia’s father tragically found out that his daughter was killed days before he was to discuss custody with Zoe’s mother.

    However, I wanted to point out just how messed up it was in Zoe Garcia’s home…

    Neighbor Rhonda Simonetti said she babysat twice for Trujillo’s youngest three kids, during which Zoe broke down crying and admitted that her bruises came from Roberts hitting her.

    “I took a day off work and drove to Social Services in Greeley to file a complaint,” Simonetti said. “I never heard anything back.”

    Apparently, other neighbors had called social services as well, but nothing ever happened.

    So you have a careless mother, a violent daughter and her equally violent boyfriend, and a failed social services department. So why is Mortal Kombat being blamed, exactly?

  • Mortal Kombat Killing

    Mortal Kombat Killing

    Teens charged in 7-year-old sister’s ‘Mortal Kombat’ death:

    I’m sure by now you’ve heard the story about Lamar Roberts, 17, and Heather Trujillo, 16, of Colorado. They’re the dumbass kids who allegedly killed Trujillo’s sister Zoe Garcia, 7, by reenacting moves from Mortal Kombat.

    They began wrestling and enacting a game of Mortal Kombat, court affidavits say. Zoe lost consciousness after being hit, kicked and body-slammed to the floor.

    The documents say Trujillo told police she was on top of her sister “holding her arms down with her legs while tapping on her chest like a typewriter when the victim passed out.” Roberts was not wrestling but was acting “as the referee,” the affidavits say.

    Trujillo said she sent Zoe to bed after she regained consciousness. When she checked on her about 15 minutes later, she was not breathing. Trujillo and Roberts tried to revive the girl in the shower and attempted CPR before calling the mother and then 911.

    In an interview later at police headquarters, Trujillo said she tripped Zoe, “punched her in the stomach, karate chopped her lower arms, punched and pinched the victim’s thighs, kicked her in the shins, slapped her stomach and buttocks and poked at the victim’s chest.”

    A witness quoted in an affidavit said Roberts told her he had kicked the girl and that his hands were “lethal weapons.”

    The witness said Roberts performed a back kick and the girl didn’t get up. He said he and Trujillo “cracked an egg in her mouth . . . in an attempt to see if she was messing around with them” by faking unconsciousness.

    I’m sure the one who shall not be named, that’s Jack Thompson for future reference, is frothing at the mouth over this one.

    However, this has nothing to do with Mortal Kombat and everything to do with two kids with no regard for the welfare of others. In the case of Trujillo, her own family.

    The video game did not make them this way. I would almost lay odds that lax supervision through their lives did.

    And would you look at this? It seems that Zoe Garcia has been placed in questionable situations before…

    Authorities in Socorro, N.M., filed three counts of abandonment or abuse of a child against Dana Trujillo in November 2003.

    The complaint states that Trujillo left her children Heather, Zoe and the 9-year-old, who now lives with Anthony Garcia, in the house with a babysitter and didn’t return that night.

    A neighbor complained the next day, and police went to the house with the paternal grandmother of the Garcia girls and woke up the babysitter in the back bedroom. The girls said they hadn’t eaten or bathed that day.

    The girls were removed from the home twice, according to Garcia, and then returned to the mother.

    So you can imagine what kind of upbringing they had. But some people will claim it was all about the video game. Those people are blind.

    Both Roberts and Trujillo have been charged as adults and are looking at 16 to 48 behind bars.