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Thread: Cops: Boy, 10, kills woman, 90, for yelling at him

  1. #1
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Cops: Boy, 10, kills woman, 90, for yelling at him




    Tristen Kurilla, 10


    "I killed that lady," the 10-year-old boy told a Pennsylvania state trooper, after a 90-year-old woman was found dead in the home of the boy's grandfather.

    Tristen Kurilla, a fifth grader, made the chilling confession Saturday, police said, after his mother brought him to the Pennsylvania State Police Barracks in Honesdale, about 140 miles north of Philadelphia.

    Now, Kurilla is being held at the Wayne County Correctional Facility and charged as an adult with criminal homicide, the Wayne County district attorney's office said. The boy is separated from adult offenders and is being constantly supervised, CNN affiliate WBRE reported.

    The boy admitted to grabbing a wooden cane, holding it against 90-year-old Helen Novak's throat for several seconds and punching her in the throat and stomach, according to the police affidavit.

    Kurilla told police he was angry at Novak because she had yelled at him when he entered her room. He said he wanted to ask her a question.

    Were you trying to kill her? the trooper asked the boy.

    "No, I was only trying to hurt her," Kurilla replied, according to the affidavit.

    The boy was ordered to be held without bail after his arraignment and is set to appear in court October 22.

    Bernie Brown, his lawyer, said he was petitioning the court to get the fifth-grade Damascus Elementary School student out of jail, WBRE reported.

    "Tristen really kind of doesn't have an idea of what is going on," Brown told the station.

    Brown added, "Jail is still jail, no matter what part of the facility you are in."

    Brown also can petition a judge to transfer the case to juvenile court.

    Janine Edwards, Wayne County district attorney, said Pennsylvania law made it mandatory "that a criminal homicide charge be first directly filed in adult court by the prosecutor regardless of the age of the perpetrator," WBRE reported.

    "It is not a choice I made," she told the station, adding that a juvenile detention center will not accept a child charged with homicide. "It's not a choice the warden made. It's not a choice Pennsylvania State Police made."

    The age of the defendant was unusual, she told the station.

    "That's not something I've seen," she said. "I'm not sure how many times that's been seen in Pennsylvania or not."

    Police were initially called to the home of Kurilla's grandfather, Anthony Virbitsky, in Damascus Township on Saturday morning with a report that an elderly woman had died there, the affidavit said. Virbitsky was the woman's caretaker, authorities said.

    The county coroner responded to the home, found Novak's body and transported it to the morgue, the affidavit stated.

    A few hours later, the boy's mother, Martha Virbitsky, appeared at the state police post with her son and told Trooper John Decker that the boy had confessed to killing Novak, the affidavit said.

    The boy's mother told police that she "has had a lot of trouble with Tristen and that he has some mental difficulties" and had been violent in the past, the affidavit said.

    Kurilla had told his grandfather that Novak was bleeding from the mouth, but denied having done anything to her, Decker wrote in the affidavit.

    Anthony Virbitsky told police he checked on Novak but found no blood, although she was breathing heavily. He asked her if she wanted to go to a hospital, the affidavit said, but she refused. When he went to check on her less than an hour later, she was dead, Virbitsky told police, and then his grandson confessed that he had hit her.

    An autopsy performed Monday discovered "blunt force trauma to Novak's neck" and her death was ruled a homicide, the district attorney's statement said.

    Some residents in Damascus Township took issue with locking up the boy in the county jail.

    "I know they see a lot of things but I don't think that they understand what they're doing," Kristy Tirney told WBRE. "I don't know."

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/14/justic...html?hpt=hp_t2

  2. #2
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Pa. judge to decide if Tristin Kurilla, 10, should be tried as adult for killing woman, 90

    Tristin Kurilla, the 10 year-old Wayne County, Pa., boy charged with striking and killing an elderly woman being cared for in his grandfather's house, is due back in court today.

    At issue is whether the boy, charged as an adult with homicide in the sensational case, should be treated as a juvenile. This, according to WNEP-16.

    Also at stake is whether Kurilla, who police say confessed to the crime, should be moved to a mental health facility instead of the Wayne County prison where the fifth grader has been held since the October incident, WNEP reports.

    Kurilla's attorney is asking a judge to decertify the case, which would move it to juvenile court, the news station writes.

    Kurilla has been ordered to be held without bailfor the alleged homicide, which happened inside Kurilla's grandfather's home along Sky Lake Road in Damascus Township, Wayne County.

    According to the Pocono Record
    , the boy punched Helen Novak, 90, of Tyler Hill, Pa., several times in the throat after first putting a cane on her neck.

    Kurilla's grandfather was caring for the woman, who had a room in the house.

    Kurilla allegedly hooked the cane around the elderly woman's neck and pushed it into her throat for four to five seconds before punching her five times in the throat and five times in the stomach. All this, according to the Scranton Times, citing police.

    The Record reports the boy's mother told investigators her son became angry at the woman for yelling at him when he entered the woman's room. The mother says her son lost his temper and grabbed a cane and put it on Novak's throat. He then punched her several times, according to the Record.

    The boy told his grandfather that Novak was bleeding from her mouth, the AP reports. The grandfather checked on the woman twice; the second time she was unresponsive.

    According to the Record, an autopsy showed blunt force trauma to Novak's neck. The boy is charged with criminal homicide in the case.

    Kurilla allegedly confessed to the crime inside the State Police Barracks in Honesdale, telling investigators: "I killed that lady," referring to 90-year-old Novak.

    When asked by the state police investigators who interviewed him whether he was trying to kill the woman, Kurilla reportedly replied:

    "No, I was only trying to hurt her," according to the affidavit in the case.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Boy accused of beating 90-year-old woman will be tried in juvenile court

    HONESDALE, Pa. (AP) — The case against a 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy accused of fatally beating a 90-year-old woman has been moved to juvenile court.

    The Times-Tribune reports
    that Monday's ruling came after a prosecution psychiatrist testified the boy would benefit most from treatment in the juvenile system.

    Wayne County chief public defender Scott Bennett has said there's "no real question" the boy beat Helen Novak on Oct. 11 at the home of his grandfather, Novak's caretaker.

    Authorities say he lost his temper when she yelled at him, held her down with a cane and punched her.

    He was charged as an adult with criminal homicide and held away from the general population at Wayne County's adult jail.

    Bennett says the boy needs mental health help. It wasn't immediately clear where he'll be housed next.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #4
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Boy accused of beating 90-year-old woman will be tried in juvenile court

    HONESDALE, Pa. (AP) — The case against a 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy accused of fatally beating a 90-year-old woman has been moved to juvenile court.

    The Times-Tribune reports
    that Monday's ruling came after a prosecution psychiatrist testified the boy would benefit most from treatment in the juvenile system.

    Wayne County chief public defender Scott Bennett has said there's "no real question" the boy beat Helen Novak on Oct. 11 at the home of his grandfather, Novak's caretaker.

    Authorities say he lost his temper when she yelled at him, held her down with a cane and punched her.

    He was charged as an adult with criminal homicide and held away from the general population at Wayne County's adult jail.

    Bennett says the boy needs mental health help. It wasn't immediately clear where he'll be housed next.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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