Kids Who Kill their parents

All three were among the juveniles who killed – or who are accused of killing – their parents or guardians in New Mexico.

Add to the list Nehemiah Griego, the 15-year-old who police say shot and killed his parents and three younger siblings last weekend in their South Valley home.

Mitchell Overhand
Age at the time of incident: 16
Year: 1988
Crime: Shot parents, Karen and Peter Overhand, hitting his mother in the head with a hammer when she didn’t die fast enough. He buried them in his Paradise Hills backyard and threw a party.
Status: Sentenced to 40 years. Got out of prison in September 2010. Currently on probation in Albuquerque for five years.

Experts say, statistically, a juvenile who kills multiple family members is the rarest type of homicide. It is five times more common for a parent to kill a child than the other way around, said Paul Mones, a defense attorney who has worked on hundreds of these cases and wrote a book on the topic.

And yet, Griego is the second New Mexico teen in the last few months to be accused of killing his family. In late November, police say

14-year-old Tony Day killed his adoptive mother and sister outside of Tucumcari.

The troubling cases raise questions about why it happens and how teens should be treated in the criminal justice system.

11 cases since 1984

The Journal found 11 cases in which a juvenile has been accused of killing his or her parents, guardians or grandparents in New Mexico since 1984. Given the rare nature and extreme scenarios, they all made headlines.

About 250 mothers and fathers are killed per year in the United States by their biological offspring, said Kathleen Heide, a professor of criminology at the University of South Florida who analyzed 32 years of FBI data and wrote two books on the topic: “Why Kids Kill Parents: Child Abuse and Adolescent Homicide” and “Understanding Parricide: When Sons and Daughters Kill Parents.”

But, in most of those cases, the offspring is an adult at the time of the crime. Only about four cases per year, on average, involve multiple victims killed by a juvenile child, Heide said.

“What you’re looking at is such a rare event, and that’s why it’s so newsworthy and that’s why people are horrified,” she said.

The number of patricides and matricides committed by youth has remained fairly constant for the last 40 years, even as the homicide rate goes up and down, Mones said.

“These homicides have been going on for millennia,” he said. “The reason is that they are inextricably tied to the family dynamics.”

‘It’s so aberrant’

Experts say these cases emerge from a unique and distinct pattern of factors.

Cody Posey
Age at time of incident: 14
Year: 2004
Crime: Shot his father, Delbert Paul Posey; stepmother, Tryone Posey, and stepsister, Marilea Schmid, 13, then buried their bodies in a manure pile on the ranch of newsman Sam Donaldson near Hondo.
Status: Convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. Released from juvenile facility at age 21.

“What makes it even more tragic is, you can’t predict this,” Heide said. “It’s so aberrant.”

Abuse and mental illness can be motivating factors, she said, as well as a desire to remove an obstacle – such as a parent who won’t let the child date the person of his or her choice. She also said some juveniles erupt in a rage, which may or may not be fueled by drugs, she said.

“When teens commit familicide (killing more than one family member), it usually means that there tends to be more mental health issues along with other familial dynamic issues,” said Mones, who wrote the book, “When a Child Kills: Abused Children Who Kill Their Parents.”

Mones said he has found some commonalities in cases where children kill their parents:

♦ About 75 percent of cases are boys who kill their fathers; 15 percent are boys who kill their mothers; 7 or 8 percent are girls who kill their fathers; and 1 to 2 percent are girls who kill their mothers.

♦ The children often engage in a phenomenon called “overkill,” shooting their parents not once, but multiple times. They often have some level of preparation, thinking about it or talking about it.

♦ In 98 percent of these cases, parents are killed with guns found in the home. The juveniles typically do not have arrest records.

♦ Initial interviews with police usually reveal only a small part of the story.

‘Dangerous standard’

One major difference between the two recent New Mexico suspects – Nehemiah Griego and Tony Day – is what will happen if both are convicted.

Day, 14, will get a hearing to determine if he is amenable to treatment, and if he is found to be, could be out of custody by age 21 – the maximum in the juvenile system.

Griego, 15, will automatically be sentenced as an adult if convicted of first-degree murder. The charges against him – five counts of first-degree murder and three counts of child abuse resulting in death – all carry 30-year sentences, although a judge can give him less time.

New Mexico law automatically transfers 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds into the adult system as “serious youthful offenders” if they are charged with first-degree murder. The statute was created in 1993 and amended to include 15-year-olds in 1996.

Nehemiah Griego
Age at the time of incident: 15
Year: 2013
Allegation: Accused of shooting his mother, father, two younger sisters and a younger brother at their home in Albuquerque on Jan. 19.
Status: Griego waived his initial appearance.

A 15-, 16- or 17-year-old convicted of a lesser crime, such as second-degree murder, also gets an amenability hearing.

The automatic transfer at age 15 is “arbitrary and unfair,” says Stephen Taylor of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. It is the position of the association that juvenile brains are not fully formed and a young person’s mental ability to plan or understand the consequences of his or her actions is not fully developed.

“It’s senseless to put a kid in prison for life who’s too young to vote or even serve in the military,” said Taylor, the managing attorney at the public defender’s office in the 11th Judicial District in San Juan and McKinley counties.

“I think it’s a dangerous standard if we allow ourselves to condemn somebody who’s that age without a meaningful review of what are their chances or their likelihood of redemption, treatment and rehabilitation.”

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said last week in discussing the Griego case that a court has discretion when sentencing juveniles and does not have to impose mandatory time.

“We can’t even begin to describe how tragic it is for the victims or the loved ones of those victims and for the community,” she said. “We’ll do everything in our power to keep something like this from happening again.”

She added: “The fact that five people lost their lives, and very young children, that certainly wouldn’t result in a light or minor sentence.”

Tony Day
Age at the time of incident: 14
Year: 2012
Allegation: Accused of stabbing his adopted sister, Sherry Folts, and shooting his adoptive mother, Sue Day, on Nov. 26 in Tucumcari.
Status: Day has waived his initial court appearance and arraignment and pleaded not guilty.

‘Poster child’

A recent U.S. Supreme Court case barred states from committing juveniles to mandatory life in prison without parole.

Cody Posey was 14 years old when he shot and killed his father, stepmother and stepsister, then buried their bodies in a manure pile on the ranch of newsman Sam Donaldson near Hondo in 2004.

Posey was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter in a nationally televised trial, but a judge found he was amenable to rehabilitation and ordered him held in a children’s facility until age 21 where he could receive psychiatric treatment.

Posey was released in 2010. “He’s doing well. He’s educating himself further, working, just trying to live a life without his name coming up every other day,” said Gary Mitchell, the attorney who defended Posey. “He’s a poster child for what we can do after a horrible, horrible situation.”

Not everyone agreed he should have received a juvenile sentence. At the time of sentencing, Posey’s uncle called the sentence a “gross miscarriage of justice.”

Desiree Linares, left, and Alexis Shields
Ages at the time of incident: Both 15
Year: 2011
Allegation: Accused of smothering foster mother Evelyn Miranda with a pillow in her Hondo Valley home.
Status: Linares waived her no-contest plea and faces a spring trial. A trial for Shields is scheduled for August.

Thomas Manning
Age at the time of incident: 16
Year: 2010
Allegation: Accused of shooting his father, Jeffrey Scott Manning, in the back of the head during a hunting trip in Gila National Forest.
Status: Defense waived Manning’s arraignment, but a trial date has not been set.

Arnell VanDuyne
Age at time of incident: 16
Year: 2001
Crime: Bludgeoned adoptive mother, Norma Young, with baseball bat in their Clovis home.
Status: Sentenced to life plus 21 years. Currently in Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe. Eligible for parole on Nov. 20, 2031.

Michael Brown
Age at time of incident: 17
Year: 1994
Crime: Orchestrated, with two friends, stabbing deaths of his 80-year-old grandparents in Rio Rancho.
Status: Sentenced to life plus 42 years. Currently in Lea County Correctional Center. Eligible for parole on April 6, 2025.

Jason Kirkman
Age at the time of incident: 15
Year: 1986
Crime: Shot his father, Ken Kirkman, in Albuquerque with high-powered arrows, mutilated his face and drew satanic symbols near his body.
Status: Sentenced to 12 years. Released from prison in 1992; released from probation in 1996.

John Hovey
Age at time of incident: 16
Year: 1984
Crime: Shot his parents, Raymond and Nancy Hovey, six times as they slept in their Albuquerque home.
Status: Transferred to a Washington prison. Serving additional life sentence plus 16 years for 2000 conviction of stabbing a paraplegic inmate 230 times because he believed the inmate was snitching on him.

— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal