Murder Med for Depression 03/02/2003 Colorado 17 Year Old Stabs 91 Year Old Former Mayor
 
 Summary:<br><br><!--StartFragment -->Paragraph eight reads: &quot;<strong>Sandoval said her son had been on medication for depression&quot;.<br /><br /></strong><a href="http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=136648">http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=136648</a><br /><br /><br />AP-WS-03-02-03 1225EST<br /><font size="5"><strong>Teen arrested in former mayor&#39;s stabbing death<br /></strong></font>codenpvsct <br />WALSENBURG, Colo. (AP) - A teenager arrested in the stabbing death of the town&#39;s 91-year-old former mayor will be charged as an adult, Assistant District Attorney Cathy Mullens said. <br />Joe Valentine Romero IV, 17, was scheduled to appear in court Monday. He was arrested Friday on suspicion of killing George Turner in what investigators believe may have been a &#39;&#39;thrill killing.&#39;&#39; <br />Turner was stabbed at least 13 times July 17. His body was found in a closet in his home. <br />According to an arrest affidavit, Romero&#39;s mother, Roberta Sandoval, told a friend of his that Romero killed Turner. But she defended her son Saturday. <br />&#39;&#39;I don&#39;t believe he did it. He&#39;s a good kid. He helps around the house. He&#39;s always respectful. He has manners,&#39;&#39; Sandoval said. &#39;&#39;I just don&#39;t believe it was him.&#39;&#39; <br />The affidavit said Sandoval told the friend Romero came home July 17 in an &#39;&#39;anger rage.&#39;&#39; Romero was going to kill a friend because a song he heard told him to do it. He decided against it and went instead to Turner&#39;s house, the affidavit says. <br />The elderly man was pulled out of bed and his throat was slit. <br />A week after the killing, Romero was committed for a time to the state mental hospital in Pueblo because of his &#39;&#39;violent ideologies,&#39;&#39; the affidavit said. Officials said he had been home-schooled for the past year. <br />Sandoval said her son had been on medication for depression. Yet he had little trouble with the law, except for an underage-drinking citation, she said. <br />Romero&#39;s friend told investigators that they hung out with a group of teenagers who believed in Satanism. <br />Investigators believe Romero acted alone. <br />&#39;&#39;We think it&#39;s just random, a random act of violence. We can&#39;t rule out the possibility it was a thrill killing,&#39;&#39; Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Steve Johnson said. <br />Turner&#39;s son, David, 59, who lives in Albuquerque, N.M., said he was thankful there was a suspect. <br />&#39;&#39;It breaks my heart,&#39;&#39; he said. &#39;&#39;Dad would have been 92 this month. He lived all those years and had a good life. You just wonder why. It kind of shakes your faith.&#39;&#39; <br />Turner, a former coal miner, was mayor for four years in the 1950s. <br />His death was part of a summer crime spree in the town of 4,200 residents that included a robbery and a fleeing parolee with a knife. <br />AP-WS-03-02-03 1225EST<br /><br /> 
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