Select by gender or name

Background

Daniel Petric grew up in a two-parent household in Ohio with Mark and Susan Petric. His father was a a Pentecostal minister in nearby Wellington, Ohio.

He was also a good football player who may have had a chance to play in college. But his football career ended when he injured his back snowboarding. He got a staph infection and was told he could no longer play sports due to a high risk of being paralysed.

Unable to play sports, Daniel turned his attention toward family-friendly console games. Eventually, he gravitated toward more violent games after playing them at the homes of friends.

His parents noticed changes in his behavior: he was less social and spent most of his free time in his room, hands glued to a controller.

Mark tried to take charge of the problem by keeping violent games out of the home. However, the 16-year-old showed no interest in obeying his parents’ rules.

When Halo 3 was released, Daniel snuck out and purchased the game. When he snuck back in the house, he was caught, and the game was confiscated.

His father put the game in his safe next to his 9mm handgun.

Crime

Daniel was boiling over his game being taken away. On October 20th, 2007, he got access to his dad’s safe. But he didn’t just take his game back; he also grabbed his dad’s pistol.

Daniel walked into the family room and told his parents to close their eyes as he had a surprise for them.

With their eyes closed, he walked behind his father and shot him in the right side of the head. He then took four shots at his mother, who was a few feet away. Three of the shots hit her, and she died instantly.

His dad was still alive, but Daniel didn’t finish him off; instead, he tried to put the gun in his dad’s hand to frame him for Susan’s murder.

Daniel’s crime was interrupted when his sister and his brother-in-law knocked at the door.

They came over earlier than expected to watch a baseball game. Daniel tried to get rid of them, but they heard moaning. Daniel’s brother-in-law barged into the home and saw his mother-in-law dead, and his father-in-law fighting for his life.

Daniel’s sister called 911 while Daniel grabbed his copy of Halo 3 and fled the home in the family van. He was rushing to a friend’s house to play the game he just killed for, but he never made it.

Police pulled him over and placed him under arrest. Daniel immediately pointed the finger at his dad saying, “my dad shot my mom.”

Once he was alone in the squad car, he seemed to show remorse for his actions, as he hoped for his father to survive the attack.

Daniel was taken in for questioning and continued to point the finger at his father.

He eventually broke down and confessed that he was the one behind the crime.

His father further confirmed the police’s suspicion in a hospital interview as he pointed the finger at Daniel.

Legal Proceedings

Daniel went to trial over a year later. He decided on a trial by judge rather than a trial by jury. The defense strategy was to blame the violent video games for warping his brain and turning him into a killer.

After 3 days, he was convicted of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, and tampering with evidence.

Mark Petric, who initially had extreme hatred for his son and even contemplated killing him in revenge, spoke on Daniel’s behalf at sentencing.

Mark seemed to put a lot of blame on the video games for his son’s irrational decisions that day.

The prosecution was seeking a life without parole sentence and used some of Mark’s initial statements about the shooting against his son.

Daniel had the chance to speak, but he stood up and shook his head before sitting back down without speaking.

The judge spoke last and also seemed to put some of the blame on video games, as people die and come back to life in them.

When it was all said and done, Daniel was sentenced to 23 years to life. He will be eligible for parole in September 2030 when he is 39 years old.