Texas boy confesses to killing sleeping stranger at age 7, won't face charges: sheriff
A 10-year-old Texas boy admitted to shooting a man he did not know more than two years ago while the victim slept, authorities said Friday – and he will not face charges.
The boy was days away from his 8th birthday on Jan. 18, 2022 when Brandon O'Quinn Rasberry, 32, was shot in the head one time while he slept at an RV park in Nixon, about 60 miles east of San Antonio. Rasberry had just moved in four days prior, the Gonzales County Sheriff's Office said.
A Nixon Smiley Independent School District principal told deputies on April 12 that the student had threatened to assault and kill another student on a bus the night prior. The school administrator contacted the sheriff's office after a threat assessment was conducted on the student, when the child confessed to shooting and killing a man two years ago.
"I was shocked, very shocked," Rasberry's father, Kenneth Rasberry, told KSAT 12 News. "This isn’t anywhere the suspect that we thought it was."
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The boy was taken to a child advocacy center, where he described for interviewers details of Rasberry's death "consistent with first-hand knowledge" of the crime, investigators said.
The boy said he had been at the RV park visiting his grandfather, who lived a few lots away from Rasberry. The 10-year-old said he obtained a 9 millimeter "dirt and army green"-colored pistol from the glove box of his grandfather's truck.
The boy described entering Rasberry's RV, shooting him in the head and shooting again into the couch before leaving, then returning the gun to the truck, investigators said.
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The child said he had observed Rasberry walking around the RV earlier in the day, but he had never met him and had no reason to be mad at him. Rasberry's body was found after he failed to show up for work for two days.
The murder weapon was located Friday at a pawn shop in Seguin, after the child informed investigators that it had been pawned by his grandfather. It was secured as evidence and linked to the crime after two spent shell casings collected from the scene were sent for forensic analysis and comparison.
The boy was placed in 72-hour emergency detention "because of the severity of the crime and because of the continued concern for the child’s mental wellbeing," the sheriff’s office said.
He was brought to a psychiatric hospital in San Antonio for evaluation and treatment and then was taken back to Gonzales County. He was placed in juvenile detention on a charge of making a terroristic threat for the school bus incident.
The child will not be charged with murder due to his age at the time of the crime, Gonzales County Sheriff's Office said. Criminal culpability begins at age 10, according to Texas law.
"He needs to be prayed on. He needs to be comforted ... He’s forgiven. And he can still be saved. He’s so young. He’s definitely tormented by something," Kenneth Rasberry told KSAT.
His son had worked at Holmes Foods in Nixon for about three months prior to his death.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.