Now to play Devils Advocate as some people like to say.. it doesn't say whether or not the kid had done this 900 times before... It's hard to believe that the kid only did it once, and he just snapped. Still, he should of taken care of this issue before it became a problem that made him snap. Now look at what it cost him.

--Core--

i don't know how he hasn't committed suicide yet.

joelface

Biggrz

BoneCrushinTrollBruzer

Nick Kostalas

Gigith

Or you're just an idiot that is trying to save his 'internet-face'. I almost never post on kotaku, but seriously...you deserve a reply atleast!

No matter how stupid something can be in your eyes, ask yourself one question: Would you like it if it happened to you? If you want to stab someone, first stab yourself and see how it feels.

I learned this from my father, a pretty long time ago. When he was teaching me how to react, and how to understand. I guess nobody taught you.

Nimsim

no sweat, I live to serve

SuperMekman

squigglychicken

Lockenator

So...his 17 month old is also his lover?

[kidding]

Dudemeister

m3lkor

Did you read how he tried to make it look like he didn't kill his daughter?

After impulsively beating his daughter to death, Spellman propped the dead child by some barbells in order to mask the death as an accident in the eyes of arriving EMTs.

Would a normal person do this? No. Would a sick fuck? Yes.

dead_red_eyes

Hammertime

m3lkor

If I had a time machine and could go back to any period in the past I wouldn't. I know that right here, right now, I have a better life because of the sacrifices (choices) that generations before me made just so I can have this life right now.

The cross isn't different, it's that you haven't stood up yet.

Tepoz

To me, hitting a child is inexcusable. I don't care what excuse can be coughed up. I grew up in an abusive household, and have seen shit that no person or kid should ever see. There's no excuse for hitting a defenseless 17-month old baby. She didn't have any idea what she did, she wasn't even 1 1/2 years old. She doesn't know. Rage is no fucking excuse. I hope this piece of shit gets his ass handed to him in jail, Jeffrey Dahmer style.

dead_red_eyes

I do think gaming is something that will be more and more revealed by society to be something that should be approached with caution and with the right mental health... we all know how all consuming it can be. Take someone who doesn't have self control, or has other emotional problems, and it's just as bad as drugs, imo. I say that honestly as someone who truly loves gaming.

It's when you read stories like this that make me wonder why God at least as He is generally known, allows humans to continue at all... and makes the idea of the cross of Christ look very different from how I usually think about it.

Mohican

m3lkor

Goodthymes

yo, it all makes sense now! This is definitely the part in Fight Club where you find out ballaboy and his cat are the same person, and his baby boy knew the whole time. When he kicked the cat, it was only because the cat was telling him, "I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

Vorpal

KEELr

dead_red_eyes

h2dk

I love sarcasm!
and PLAY-DOH!

LittlestLamshi

Norellicus

I mean Mike Vick has a kid doesn't he? So obviously he shouldn't be going to jail right now cause kids aren't the same as dogs. Right...?

d_g

Luis

FrigidAir44

Thankfully since its an old case it shouldnt. Plus the dude has been put away behind bars.

Witzbold

___________________

quote (from linked article): ...Spellman, who has three prior convictions on drug offenses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, will face a maximum penalty of 231/2 to 47 years in prison, said Assistant District Attorney James Berardinelli.

...drugs...

___________________

quote: "...Throughout the trial, defense attorney Bobby Hoof maintained that his client was innocent and tried to cast suspicion on the child's mother, Mia Turman, who had a history of neglecting the child, according to Department of Human Services reports Hoof introduced as evidence."

....she sounds like a woman I worked for once ad her family... :P (Hey! M.I.A. I get it!)

___________________

quote: "In his closing argument Monday, Berardinelli urged the jurors to conclude that the series of blows inflicted on the child's head were done "with a wickedness of disposition . . . a hardness of heart and extreme indifference" to the impact that such a battering would have on the girl's 17-pound body."

Well I'm certain there was some "mysterious" wickedness involved, (thinks about no-show mother...) Hmmm....

___________________

I won't condemn the man, after all, who among us hasn't logged onto "Bang-Bros.com" while claiming to be so-called pure (and so self-righteous) :P

SuperMekman

Streeks1984

Agies

Hope he burns in hell.

Kevin856

jettokisora

I really hate PETA, I think they're an agenda pushing lot of crazies.

Moonchilde

By the way, how do you know I'm not a vegetarian? Vegan, even?

Ok, I'm real real gone, like Van Morrison.

Toolio

Budkin

Ballaboy311

Ok, I'm gone.

Toolio

Killtacular

J/K

Luis

Echo_Hotel

ElektroDragon

Check out ballaboy311's profile pic full size, won't you, everyone?

Flame off.

Toolio

Probably just had a moment of gamer rage .... we have all had them from time to time. He just wasn't able to control himself and did something he should have never even considered.

Randroid

yhancik

ElektroDragon

Ballaboy311

Ballaboy311

KEELr

Toolio

Ballaboy311

Ballaboy311

I hope he gets banned. Should we all put his name in for Ban Monday?

Moonchilde

Norellicus

Ed

That's not something you make up for more than half a thread.

eld

Tepoz

Ballaboy311

@ballaboy311: I dont even own a cat.
That's a relief.

jettokisora

Ballaboy311

Tizlor

Toolio

Luis

Ballaboy311

Moonchilde

While SilentAssassin is just doing his own thing, I find it hard to believe that you don't understand where everyone is coming from on this. You came out guns a-blazing against Spellman only to completely discredit yourself by openly admitting you are also abusive, albeit not to your own child. While you may feel completely justified in kicking your pet (and really, you're an asshole), it's hands-down abuse.

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

jettokisora

the guy of the topic got sent to prison, so justice was done there.

but ballaboy still walk around unpunished thinking that it's still okay to kick animals, I guess thats the basis of the flaming.

eld

Have a look at the childhood of most mass murderers and you will find that somewhere along that line they have tortured animals before turning their attention to humans.

sauvage

F-that guy who killed his baby. I hope he never gets out.

Luis

Toolio

Bluecell

The comparison of a helpless child to a helpless small animal still stands. Neither can defend themselves and this guy is an idiot for condemning someone for abusing a defenseless child when he admitted to kicking a defenseless cat.

Maybe you and ballaboy should go back to school and take some comprehension courses, because both of your's fails tremendously.

Moonchilde

Kicking your cat is a seriously assholish thing to do. You can teach an animal how to respect your property just as easily through words and gentle punishment.

(Or you can not put the fucking xbox out where the cat is gonna knock it over...seriously, do any of you understand physics? The thing is topheavy. Even if MS markets it that way, standing it up is a dumb idea. Lay it down and you won't ever have a problem with the cat again. AMAZING!)

Norellicus

Witzbold

m3lkor

JakeLL

I don't think he's intelligent enough to realize "Hit undeveloped skull=dead baby". Dirtbags are stupid.

SuperMaxZero

SilentAssassn87

The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'"

sauvage

Our hobby, no, our passion is constantly taking one step, only to staggered two steps backwards by cretins such as this. Was it not just a month ago that some beast killed a child reenacting Mortal Kombat while drunk with the child's sister? I suppose this is just an example of how far reaching gaming truly is. Some of the nicest and kindest people to the lowest scum of the Earth, a polar opposite for everyone I suppose.

I guess it's no wonder why it's so easy for the media to compare gaming to pornography or drugs when all you ever hear from popular media is death, murder, and outrage about gaming.

Destrudo

DugDawg

*eyeroll*

Norellicus

Well. Honestly, what did you expect the reaction to your comment to be?

"Yeah, you show that cat! it doesnt know better! it totally deserves a kicking!"

It is alive, it feels pain, and it doesn't understand. You can't justify it just because its not a human being. It can't defend itself from you. You're a grown man, its a tiny animal. And whatever it knocked over or damaged in some way, they're just possessions, which compared to a life, be it animal or human, are meaningless.

aden.exe

manitouwadge

Toolio

At 17 months is is quite possible for the bones of the skull to not have fully fused together. An adult skull is made of 22 bones but at birth it is made of 45 boney elements. It can take more than 18 months for the bones in the front of the skull to fuse together, this is the soft spot on a baby's forehead that you many have heard of.

Regardless, I agree that the crime is fairly brutal. Still, he was convicted of third degree murder by a jurry and that's what we all have to live with.

Agies

daschupa

Moonchilde

Ballaboy311

And rightly so, carry on.

aden.exe

Another big issue, at least as far as I'm concerned, is how insular we are all becoming. We don't seem to care about one another as human beings, we aren't nearly as neighborly as we once were as a whole. We used to care, but now that we can access the outside world from our computers and televisions, more people choose to stay indoors.(I know I can be guilty of it.) And a lot of that builds up stress on top of what we already have, and some people (like this guy here.) probably cannot control it as well as others, they release that stress onto other people. So we're not able to really gage how 'stable' anyone is anymore, because we never really know anyone around us. Maybe that guy's just having a bad day? Maybe his problems are much deeper than that.

Problems that seem so simple often are much more complex.

Ampillion, Dayman. Fighter of the Nightman.

You wouldn't find that on Joystiq.

Toolio

Ballaboy311

Poor taste in the media? Any surprise here?

Ignatius

skullpanda

Yes, I agree. It seems very inappropriate to use that to describe a situation like this.

TheMysteriousStranger

So you wouldn't mind if I came over to your house, kicked you in the nuts every so often, would ya?

Just as long as you knew that I hated you?

Ignatius

Moonchilde

The man deserves a much harsher sentence. I don't know how not killing a child is so difficult these days.

Also, Ballaboy331, it's just not funny. I'm sure you thought you were being funny, but seriously. That just horrible. Yes, it's a cat, but it's also a cat. It can feel pain and it can't really hurt you.

Oh, and I hate PETA.

Cola82

Although, it may have been the only defense the his lawyer could come up with. If his obsession had been that bad, it would have shown up in his spouse leaving him (unless she herself was addicted to video games), losing his place to live, losing his job, his health failing, stealing to support his habit, any number of things that most addicts do to support their habits. Who knows, maybe his lawyer was able to show that he did have the classic addiction symptoms.

Tepoz

Ollivander

he wasn't being serious, unlike you.

remember, even if you had a pleasure in kicking your pets, it's still punishable by law.

eld

Ballaboy311

SilentAssassn87

I was blocked unfairly.

rocklee111

SilentAssassn87

Toolio

Ballaboy311

zibby

Toolio

Moonchilde

Ballaboy311

You're welcome to join mr spellman.
A small animal is no different from a small child, they're equally defenseless no matter what your personal opinion are about them.

eld

@ballaboy311: A cat doesn't "know better" - A cat has no idea what a game console is, or how much of your precious money you put into it. Asshole.

Toolio

I hear what you are saying loud and clear.

jettokisora

HANK-SP

Here's an idea, make it so that your system is out of reach or protected from your cat... wait, no, here's an even better idea: Don't get an animal in the first place. You're obviously too much of a dumbass to carry that kind of responsibility.

cocks

Perhaps not capital punishment, as this was nowhere near first-degree (which includes intent, malice and planning).

I think he qualifies for at least second degree, which he did with intent and malice. He pummeled her so hard that he fractured her skull, one of the strongest human bones, even in a 17-month old.

Ignatius

Ballaboy311

m3lkor

Ollivander

zibby

LiBi

Bboboo

Agies

Get your head out of your ass.

Moonchilde

cocks

Moonchilde

Ballaboy311

Stefanten

Nissan288

zibby

Tonx

News flash: kicking a cat isn't ok either, champ.

evslin

But I spit out my soda in a mixture of a small laugh and utter "wtf" when I read "Like a walnut"

This guy needs to rot in a 4x4 square of concrete. I just hope the Media won't starts saying "ZOMG MASTER CHIEF TOLD HIM TO DO IT ZORZ"

StopTheOncoming

Now though, I think that the persecutors should've also informed that this wasn't about videogames. A guy with that state of mind could've lost his temper no matter what the obsession was based on.

Maybe they weren't so smart to figure out that this would create gamers a bad image. Or they didn't care, they didn't want to, or they are just dolts and actually think it was the particular obsession into videogames.

LiBi

I kid, I kid...

ajay42

jettokisora

Randroid

Agies

Sorry for the excessive profanity.

NMC ONE WAY

Oh, that's right. Our legal system is just as retarded as our political system! Oops!

Ignatius

CenatorC

Flawless101

Agies

TheBoxNinja

EmeraldDragon

From the sounds of it, the kid didn't stand a chance in between a bunch of neglectful parents. Maybe Human Services should've taken the kid in the first place, let the parents either wallow in their misery or snap to it and fix their lives to regain their child.

Ampillion, Dayman. Fighter of the Nightman.

I think from the ruling the jury found that he wasn't trying to kill the girl but he still wanted to hurt her.

It's assholes like this who give the rest of us a bad name. The one in a million who would actually get violent over a game is all people remember.

egyptomix

The Dude

Ballaboy311

seafisch

cyberdemon23

Jnas

At least hes going away for a long time.

Witzbold

NotAZombie