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Home / World

10-year-old boy confesses to murdering stranger in 2022 - but he can’t be charged with it

NZ Herald
22 Apr, 2024 03:33 AM3 mins to read

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A 10-year-old Texas boy confessed to the murder of 32-year-old Brandon Rasberry (pictured).

A 10-year-old Texas boy confessed to the murder of 32-year-old Brandon Rasberry (pictured).

A 10-year-old boy from Texas has confessed to killing a stranger while he was just 7 in 2022 - but despite the admission he cannot be charged with the cold-blooded killing.

Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry was found dead in his motorhome (RV) at a trailer park on January 18, 2022, with a gunshot wound to the head and minor grazes on his hands, according to police.

The 32-year-old was dead for two days before his employer reported him missing.

Despite United States police extensively looking through his phone records, mobile data, and interviewing family, friends and neighbours, they came up empty-handed and all leads were exhausted.

Then in a twist more than two years later, a local school principal came forward to police detailing a chilling confession from one of his students.

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The student, now 10, admitted to allegedly murdering Rasberry, and recently threatened to kill another student.

A 10-year-old Texas boy confessed to the murder of 32-year-old Brandon Rasberry (pictured).
A 10-year-old Texas boy confessed to the murder of 32-year-old Brandon Rasberry (pictured).

“Investigators determined based on the information the child told the school, the child may have knowledge about the murder of Brandon,” the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation division said.

The boy, whose identity has not been revealed, “described in detail” in interviews with police the murder he allegedly carried out.

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Police said the child explained he took his grandfather’s pistol from the glovebox of his truck and crept into Rasberry’s motorhome at the trailer park where both the victim and grandfather lived.

“The child stated he observed Brandon sleeping in his bed and approached Brandon and discharged the firearm into Brandon striking him one time in the head,” police said.

“The child stated as he was leaving the RV he discharged the firearm another time into the couch inside the RV. The child then exited the RV and returned the firearm to the glovebox of the truck.”

Investigators say the boy had no clear motive and admitted to not knowing the victim.

“The child was also asked if he was mad at Brandon for some reason or if Brandon had ever done anything to him to make him mad, the child stated no,” police said.

The weapon was tracked down at a pawn shop the grandfather had sold it to. It matched with the shell casing that were collected at the murder scene.

According to Texas state law, a child cannot be responsible for a crime until they are 10 years old, which means he cannot be charged as he was 7 at the time.

This has outraged Rasberry’s family.

“Finding out it was a 7-year-old that committed the murder, a senseless murder at that, it’s just tragic. It’s kind of hard to wrap your head around,” Rasberry’s brother, Jonathan Fojtik, told KENS5.

“I feel like the boy knew exactly what he was doing. Why wasn’t the child being supervised more?”

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The boy, who cannot be named, has been taken to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation and treatment.

Since turning 10, he has been held over threats to a fellow student and is in a county jail.


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