‘I killed that lady’: Chilling confession of boy, 10, who ‘held the cane on her throat and punched her numerous times’ to death for yelling at him.

15 Oct, 2014 by Tiffiny Ruegner

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Approximately 90% of children in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90% of those games involve mature content that often includes violence. I found a facebook page called “I like to beat up old people on Grand Theft Auto”. No one knows if exposure to violent video games caused this 10-yr-old boy from Pennsylvania to beat a 90-year-old woman, who was in the care of his grandfather, to death. But no one can dispute that with the rise of violent video games, there has definitely been a decrease in children’s inhibitions toward violent behavior and an increase in violence in children towards adults even ending in death.

Prosecutors in Wayne County said the boy, Tristen Kurilla, was visiting his grandfather, Anthony Virbitsky, in Tyler Hill Saturday, when county emergency responders got a call reporting the death of an elderly woman who has been in his care, Helen Novak.

District Attorney Janine Edwards said in a statement that Kurilla’s mother, Martha Virbitsky, brought him in to the state police barracks at Honesdale the same afternoon and reported that her son had told her that he had gone into the woman’s room and she yelled at him.

Tristen told his mother ‘he got mad, lost his temper and grabbed a cane and put it around Novak’s throat,’ police said. Advised of his rights and interviewed by a trooper, he said he ‘pulled Novak down on the bed and held the cane on her throat and then punched her numerous times,’ authorities said.

Police said an autopsy performed Monday at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale indicated blunt force trauma to the victim’s neck, and the death was ruled a homicide.

Dr. Gary Ross also said the boy’s account to police ‘was consistent with the injuries he observed.’ Tristen was charged as an adult with criminal homicide and aggravated assault, with the prosecutor’s office noting that the crime of homicide ‘is specifically excluded from the juvenile act’ and therefore ‘a juvenile who commits the crime of homicide is charged as an adult.’

When interviewed by police Saturday, Tristen Kurilla reportedly told a trooper: ‘I killed that lady. I was only trying to hurt her,’. According to court documents cited by WFMZ, the boy’s mother, Martha Virbitsky, told police she ‘has had a lot of trouble with Tristen and that he has had some mental difficulties.’ Kurilla is being held without bail pending an October 22 preliminary hearing.

Assuming that this kid has been exposed to either violent TV, Movies or Videogames that lowered his inhibitions toward violence and increased his reactionary reflexes without conscience, I have a word to say about children and the media. I have talked to my son about how what we put in our head inevitably comes out through our words and actions. I struggle as a parent because while I HATE video games and don’t want him to play ANY, I also don’t want to deny him understanding how gaming works as it will inevitably be a part of the workforce by the time he is an adult. I often have adult conversations with my 12-yr-old about the addictive effects of video gaming so at least he understands why I restrict him so much. So far he tells me if he comes across a violent game at a friends home and that he’s requested to play something else. A couple times he’s told me he needs a week-long break from games because he’s thinking about it too much.

As a parent the best we can do is to educate our kids to be aware of what they’re doing or seeing on a screen, to limit themselves by exercising real creative outlets in their minds outside of a monitor and to understand that a video game tells you what to do, where to go, what you’re allowed to see and sets limits for you which is a dangerous comfort zone to create for oneself. I often tell my son that in reality the video game is training children to be obedient adults and follow commands mindlessly from an unseen creator.

The sad part about children who play endlessly without any parental stops or supervision is that the mind numbing effects of a game can allow a child to react without conscience, like killing an old lady with a cane for yelling.