A 10-year-old Texas boy confessed to shooting a man in January 2022, when the boy was just a few days shy of turning 8, the Gonzales County Sheriff’s office said.
The mysterious case of 32-year-old Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry, a resident of Lazy J RV Park in Nixon, Texas, was finally solved when the Gonzales County Sheriff’s office received a call on April 12 from a worried school principal who said a male student had threatened to kill another student on a bus.
A deputy was dispatched to make a report but was told upon arrival that the boy had also claimed that he had killed a man two years ago.
The child was transported to a child advocacy center for an interview. The details of the child’s account were consistent with the evidence found at the murder scene, police said.
The boy said he was visiting his grandfather on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022, when he took a 9 mm pistol from the glove box of his grandfather’s truck, left with it, and entered the RV belonging to Mr. Rasberry, who was sound asleep in his bed.
The boy approached the sleeping man and shot him once in the head. Before leaving, the child fired a second shot into a couch. The boy then put the gun back where he had found it.
Two days later, Mr. Rasberry’s body was found when his employer called the RV park to check up on him.
The police investigation found no leads—no motive, no suspects.
The ten-year-old child said it was the first time he had seen Mr. Rasberry. He knew nothing about him except that he had seen him walking around the RV park earlier in the day—the victim and the boy’s grandfather lived just a few lots apart.
Investigators asked the boy if he was mad at Mr. Rasberry for some reason or if Mr. Rasberry had ever done anything to him to make him mad, but the boy stated no.
The boy told investigators that his grandfather later pawned the gun. Police were able to retrieve the pistol from a pawn shop in Seguin, Texas, on the very same day of the interview. Forensic analysis of the two shell cases found at the crime scene confirmed that the pawned gun was indeed the murder weapon.
After the interview, the child was placed on a 72-hour emergency detention “because of the severity of the crime and because of the continued concern for the child’s mental wellbeing,” the Sheriff’s office said.
The boy was then transported to a psychiatric hospital in San Antonio, Texas, for evaluation and treatment. After the examination, the child was then brought to the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office, where he was charged—but not for the murder.
According to the Texas penal code, children do not have criminal culpability until they reach the age of ten. Because the boy was only seven when he committed the murder, no homicide charges can be filed according to state law.
However, since the boy is now ten, he was charged with making a terroristic threat for what he did on the school bus. He was placed in detention by Gonzales County Juvenile Probation to await his court date at a later time.
