Boy, 10, 'brainwashed by National Socialists shot dead his Nazi father'

 
Mark Wilkinson30 October 2012
WEST END FINAL

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A boy who was 10 when he killed his brutal neo-Nazi father with a shot to the head while he slept on the sofa is standing trial accused of murder.

Joseph Hall, now 12, told police he took a .357-Magnum from a cupboard and shot Jeff Hall, 32, in the ear.

His father, an unemployed plumber with tattoos of Nazi insignia on his head, was a regional leader of the National Socialist Movement.

The day before his death in May last year he held a meeting of the group at his home in Riverside County, California.

Footage filmed by a documentary-maker, showed the thin, blond Joseph listening intently to speeches in a room decorated with swastikas.

Hall took Joseph on patrols of the Mexican border. Armed with guns and wearing night-vision goggles and combat gear, they attempted to detain illegal immigrants.

Public defender Matthew Hardy told the New York Times his client has psychological problems and was exposed to neo-Nazi “conditioning”.

“He’s been conditioned to violence. You have to ask, ‘Did this kid know that this act was wrong based on all those things?’

” The boy is said to have been beaten repeatedly in the home he shared with a stepmother and four siblings.

But district attorney Michael Soccio said: “He decided, as he put it, it was time to end the father-son thing.

"This child started at five being expelled from school for violence. His violence started way before his dad joined any Nazi party.”

His trial is being presided over by a judge with no jury. If convicted of murder Joseph could be held in custody until he is 25.

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