KS - Robert Hamlin, 43, shot to death, 10yo son charged, 24 April 2005

When Carolyn Moore answered the light knock on her front door Sunday night, she was greeted by a boy wearing only burgundy underwear and holding a shotgun. "There stood this poor, scared half-naked little boy saying 'Help me, help me. Hide me. They're after me,'" Moore said. "I could see the fear in his eye. He said, 'They're going to get me and spank me hard.'"

On Wednesday, Allen County authorities said the 10-year-old boy was charged with first-degree murder in the shotgun slaying of his father. Robert D. Hamlin , 43, was found dead Sunday night at his home near Humboldt.

"The child said, 'I done something really bad,'" Moore said, recalling their conversation. "And I said, `What did you do?'

"He said, 'I shot my dad.'"

The boy, whose name was not released, was charged as a juvenile and could be held until age 23 if convicted. A closed juvenile court hearing was conducted in the county seat of Iola, eight miles north of Humboldt, and a judge ordered the case sealed.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154878,00.html

How sad. There must be more to this story than we are hearing.

Sheromom said:

How sad. There must be more to this story than we are hearing.

Click to expand...

A lot more I'd say Sheromom.
I wonder if it was an accident, if the boy was playing with the gun?
Or if he intended to kill his Dad?
So sad.

* article dated April 2005:
The 10-year-old had taken a bath while his father watched television from a couch in the front room of the Hamlin home. Meanwhile, Debbie Hamlin and the others were outdoors.

That's when Hamlin, apparently never aware that he was threatened, was shot in the back of the head and slumped onto the couch. Those outdoors heard the report of the shotgun's discharge, but were not altogether sure what had happened.

Then, the 10-year-old boy, wearing only underwear that he had pulled on after bathing, came from the house carrying a shotgun -- it later was found to be a 20 gauge -- and acted in a threatening enough manner that Debbie Hamlin sent the children scurrying to safety.

A boy and girl ran to Dorcas Romary's nearby home and the oldest of the boys, 15-year-old Jacob, slipped past the 10-year-old and into the house, along with the granddaughter, who is little more than a toddler.

The mother, feeling threatened and apparently thinking her children and granddaughter were secure, got into a pickup truck and drove to the Romary home, to join the two siblings.

Meanwhile, the boy, locked from the home, walked or ran north along a section of old U.S. 69 that once was along the east of the Monarch Cement Company plant about a quarter of a mile to the home Ron and Carolyn Moore. Moore is a former Allen County sheriff, having stepped down in January 2001 after 16 years in office.

As the Register reported Monday, the Moores took in the boy, removed the shotgun from him in gentle enough manner that he wasn't disturbed, fed and clothed him and called authorities.

Sheriff Tom Williams arrived a little later, by himself as Moore
encouraged to keep the boy from becoming agitated, and took the boy away. The boy was taken to the juvenile detention center in Girard, where he remains today.

Children under age 10, regardless of circumstances, fall into the
child-in-need-of-care legal category.

Williams said an autopsy was performed on Hamlin's body Monday, but that results were not yet available. He said, however, that the wound to the head would seem to preclude any other cause of death.
*link is broken now

The deputies were told that the boy had left the home with a 20-gauge shotgun. Officers found him about a quarter-mile away and recovered the gun from him.

Hathaway could not say if additional charges were filed against the boy. He also could not say if prosecutors would try to move the case and whether the child was still in custody.

"It's a juvenile case, and that's the charge," he told reporters.

Juvenile offenders can be held until age 23, he said
*another broken link

The case of the youngster, identified in the statement only as J.H., is before District Judge District Judge Dan Creitz, who ordered the case sealed and told all parties not to talk about it.

The court will be provided with updates on the youngster’s status.

“If it is determined at a later date that he is then competent to come to adjudication, then further hearings will be conducted,” Hathaway said.

Until then, the boy will remain in state custody in an unnamed “appropriate treatment facility,” he said.