video games had little to do with the video game?

Dudes I totally just killed a bunch of robbers using Mortal Kombat style moves right outside of First National Bank in Toughsville, USA! Am I cool yet?

Seriously who would use Mortal Kombat style moves to kill anyone? With all the projectiles and whatnot I'd assume it'd be near impossible. Not to mention a guy with a SKULL for his FACE.

Zombie Liu Kang anyone?

dont know how they werent suspicious of her boyfriend to begin with when she brought him home. statistics dont lie. :P

Can't wait for JT to chime in.

Whether it's Mortal Kombat, or the fucking WWF. We all mimicked fighting moves as a kid. Not everyone did it to the extent of killing someone though.

suggested that video games had very little to do with the video game?

@Northernsky:

You know what it meant, anyways, this is ridiculous, and the sad part is that it will never end. Its never the parents fault, that would be too REAL for the people that crave for the dramatic and macabre.

I still say they beat her with the Cd case for the game. That's the only way you can kill someone with Mortal Kombat.

..Unless you force them to watch the second movie.

No, I heard that he totally created and threw a fireball using nothing more than his hands, right after bicycle-kicking the mailman.

I live in Omaha, which was the site of a pretty bad mall shooting last December. My girlfriend worked at a Gamestop at the time and almost immediately after the story broke her store was getting calls from various reporters asking if he had purchased any games from her store, and if any of them were violent.

Seriously, what ever happened to just calling idiots what they are? Does the media seriously have to dig into every negative story until they find a weak video game link and then exploit it all the way to the front page?

Flawless Victory.

What does that even mean... "Mortal Combat moves"
They beat a child to death, they didn't bicycle kick him while flying through the air or uppercut him onto some spikes. They just killed him. They're morons and should just go to jail and rot without dragging the video game industry through the mud.

@OUberLord: If it's in, it's in. Can't go against the current fashion trend: to blame games for everything.

Personally I blame Cops and Robbers all those old people played.

You've got to be poorly digitized before you can pull off those moves.

Fatality

@ hungry_for_worms

What do you mean by that?

By mimicing Mortal Kombat moves do they mean things like throwing a spear accros the room to pull the kdi towards him then tearing off his face and breathing fire on them? Or was it just standard kicks and punches that likely had nothing to do with the game?

Am I a horrible person for thinking Heather Trujillo looks, well, pretty cute... in a prison jumpsuit mugshot kind of way?

@Applekid: Beware, she's like the Mileena of this reality.

@Old-school Sonic fanboy: @Priboi: You're crazy.

No, you're a horrible person because she's 16.

THE PARENTS ARE NEVER AT FAULT
/sarcasm off

Seriously, these kids werent beat enough growing up.

Babeality

FINISH HIM!!! >.<

my parents thought mortal kombat was too violent for me, resulting in my undying love for street fighter.

Some of the comments in this section are pretty f*&(ing tastless. A little girl was beaten to death and people throw in a "fatality!" as a show at humor? WTF?

Heap all sorts of crap on the older sister and her d!&*head boyfriend that you want, but leave the tasteless humor about the deceased alone.

PS Kudos to the relatives to at least acknowledge that videogames had little to do with this tragedy.

Some of the comments here are pretty tasteless I'd say. Have some respect people, someone lost their life over this shit.

@metahgyear: I got Mortal Kombat on my Genesis when I was like 6. I've had no problems.

*kicks a puppy*

@Draco Basileus:

Wow, we said the same thing!

Could it be the pair thought up the "Mortal Kombat" angle to get a lighter sentence in this "blame the videogames" society?

"Following Zoe's death, her mother, Dana Trujillo, was arrested on an old child abuse warrant from New Mexico. Social service records reveal 20 complaints of abuse directed toward Zoe, in both Colorado and New Mexico."

What a terrible terrible story... makes you want to do something to help these children that just need a loving parent :(

@LittleBigPlaneteer: Yeah, but what can you really do? Yes, someone died, and yes, it's sad, but it happens all the time. Nothing can be done to make it better.

@Draco Basileus: hey, i was making fun of the media, not the killed one.

Although I hesitate to make light of a case involving the murder of a child, allow me this one thing:

Personally, I'd utilize Street Fighter moves. Hadukan!

Take that average street thug. That that.

@Draco Basileus:
@LittleBigPlaneteer:

I couldn't agree more. Some of these comments are over the line.

Why even look into the influence of a video game when the killer admitted to being drunk?

@Adam: I know, which is why I tried to provide the caveat.

Also: That that? There needs to be an edit feature here. I am far too often multitasking.

I'd hit that.

I am glad to see people for once not dumping the blame entirely on video games. It's certainly easy (and pretty popular) to scapegoat the relatively *new* form of entertainment as the cause of all of life's ailments, but that this family went out of its way to say "Mortal Kombat" was not the problem is relatively unheard of. Kudos to them for at least trying to clear things up in the face of absurd claims.

I second what several other readers have already said about the rash of absolutely tasteless comments cropping up in this thread. When did it suddenly become a good idea to say incredibly offensive things about someone who tragically died? I understand gamers getting offended by people attacking something so close to all of us, but that is no reason to make light of a 7-year-old girl who was killed by two idiots. Please, grow up.

Though I'm happy video games had no part in this (they rarely ever do), it still saddens me that this murder even happened in first place. I could have done without being reminded of this, since I cried when it was first reported.

I'm also disappointed in the prosecution, you'd think blindly blaming things that had nothing to do with anything would weaken your case, and the last thing that guy needs is an acquittal.

@hungry_for_worms: "dont know how they werent suspicious of her boyfriend to begin with when she brought him home. statistics dont lie. :P"

Presumably the 'statistics' involve a not-particularly veiled reference to the guy being black. Wow, racism on top of some incredible tastelessness, you guys have really done the internet proud.

I'm just curious as to what qualifies as a "Mortal Kombat " move. Did they throw spears and ice balls at each other? Or did they turn into giant dragons and bite her torso off?

If you can't blame the video games then blame the minority.

this is why my daughter is not dating until she is 40.

the boy has to fill out an application detailing all his personal infos and tour my gun collection before taking my daughter out.

@Old-school Sonic fanboy: Hows about not being so apathetic about it? That might make it better. How about educating someone who is uninformed about how Mortal Kombat and video games aren't to blame for the evils in the world? It won't bring her back but it might make it a little better too.

Since when does "child abuse" and "murder" need another alias? Describing the nature of the moves in some "colorful" way is heinous and senseless, much like the crime these two committed. If the kid was kicked "WWE style" would that be better? How about if she was put in a "UFC style" hold. This type of description only underscores the continuing ability of the media and society in general to always pay more attention to the sensational rather than the substanial. No matter how you slice it and no matter what colorful description you want to attach to this act is really rather plain and ugly. It was violent child abuse that lead to the murder of an infant. Deal with that. Isnt it enough?

@Skeezicks: Don't try to make me feel bad. It won't work.

Video games will continue to be blamed until some new form of entertainment becomes popular.

@Modus_Operandi: Well said. Not to mention that "colorful" monikers inevitably detract from the reality of the crime.
It turns a much too real tragedy in some twisted videogame-related bizarre piece of news.

This idea that videogames (or movies, or "Satanic" music, or, not so long ago, books) are poisoning society ends up overshadowing the sheer atrocity of the facts - while also spurring idiotic comments which, I can only hope, came from people who typed before they thought.

@Old-school Sonic fanboy, Sinharvest, akumadiavolo: Ok 3 down. Anyone else want some?

@Torokun: You won't let your daughter date until menopause? Have fun with those grandchildren you won't be having.

@Draco Basileus:
Agreed. A lot of these commenters may not have read the original story. This guy Lamar Roberts beat a 7-year-old girl to death. She had some terrible injuries, I can't remember them all. I think her neck was broken. It was very f*cked up. I'm inclined to throw a bug STFU to everyone.

@Old-school Sonic fanboy: I wasn't trying to make you feel bad, I was just disagree with your point of view.

Reading the initial report from Rocky Mountain News, looks like they were wrestling and someone got hurt, not practicing flying kicks and the like.

[www.rockymountainnews.com]

@Witzbold: "Bring the rain!"

Every time I think that Kotaku has the most mature comment section of any game blog I've read, a story like this comes along and proves me wrong. Ah well, fresh victims for the evergrowing army of the banhammer'd.

Well Im at least glad to hear the story moving away from the Video games are teh devul angle.

Since seriously the whole Mortal Kombat shit was just fucking stupid.

@Adam: The line is a speck on the horizon

I did chortle slightly at "BABALITY" though.

@And after this our exile: The fact is that people in general are not introspective and arent patient. We dont like sitting down and thinking about a problem. We dont like ambigious answers or being in the dark about something. The more heinous a crime is the quicker and simplier the answer has to be. So invariably, something like this occurs and instead of thinking "Hmmm. Maybe it was poor parenting. Maybe we should have known who she was dating better. Maybe we shouldnt have put her in charge of babysitting and gotten someone else", people go "Nah. VIDEOGAMES! Damn videogames killed my baby!". Its easier than saying the truth. "Your son/daughter killed an innocent child willfully".

looks like a butch punky brewster. i wonder...how's her roundhouse?

@hungry_for_worms: Classy comment...too bad this is Kotaku, and not Stormfront.

I'd beat both their asses for what they did to that girl, "Mortal Kombat" style.

News reports need to be less biased about this and report what people were doing before EVERY crime.
Suspect was eating Smuckers Jam, then proceeded to lay the beats on his wife. Fruit preserves linked to fits of rage? Find out more at 11...

@MENACEIISOBRIETY: You sound like a complete dumbass.

I'm just curious here, what moves did they replicate? The part where sub zero freezes his opponent and shatters them? Or where scorpion goes "GET OVER HERE!" and uses his metal whip that comes out of his hand to grab them? I like using both on infants/children personally.