No charges will be filed against a 10-year-old Texas boy in a case in which he admitted to killing a man he had never met.
Brandon Rasberry, 32, was shot to death with a bullet to the head in January 2022 at an RV Park in Nixon, Texas. No suspects were located.
On April 12 of this year, a chain of events unfolded that led police to Rasberry’s killer, according to a news release from the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies were summoned to a Nixon Smiley Independent School District elementary school in response to a report that a 10-year-old boy had threatened to assault and kill a student on a bus. When the responding deputy arrived, the school indicated the boy said he shot a man to death two years ago.
During a subsequent interview, the boy provided extensive details that matched what police knew about the crime.
“The child stated he was visiting his grandfather at his house on the afternoon of Sunday January 16th 2022,” the news release said. “It was determined at the time of Brandon’s death, the child’s grandfather and Brandon lived in the same RV Park a few lots apart. The ten year old stated he obtained a pistol from the glove box of his grandfather’s truck. The child described the pistol as a 9 millimeter pistol ‘dirt and army green’ in color.
“The child informed investigators he then entered the RV belonging to Brandon. 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,” the release 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.”
Deputies said the boy told them “he had never met Brandon, and did not know who he was although he had observed him walking around the RV earlier in the day. The child also was 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.”
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The gun was found at pawn shop after the boy said his grandfather had pawned it.
This week, shell casings from the crime were compared to the gun and were found to be a match, the release said.
Deputies took the boy for a 72-hour emergency detention and psychiatric evaluation. The boy, whose name was not released, was charged with “terroristic threat” in the bus incident, but he wasn’t charged in the slaying.
The release said that under Texas state law, “A child does not have criminal culpability until they reach the age of ten years old.”
At the time of the killing, the child was 7, just one week short of his 8th birthday, according to the release.
Nixon-Smiley schools issued a statement saying the student won’t be coming back to the school, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Gonzales County Attorney Paul Watkins called the case “extraordinarily uncommon.”
“He is a young child,” Watkins said. “The offense is horrific, but we have to protect him, too. He is a child.”
Kenneth Rasberry, father of the victim, told KSAT-TV he was “shocked, very shocked. This isn’t anywhere the suspect that we thought it was.”
“This is a little boy, for reasons that I’m sure these counselors and case managers and all of that, that’s going to pick that poor little boy’s brain apart,” Rasberry said.
Rasberry said he hopes the boy has some kind of normal life.
“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,” Rasberry said.
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