Quote :

Tristen Kurilla, the 10-year-old boy who was charged as an adult with the homicide of a 90-year-old woman, has been at a county prison since his arrest on Saturday.

Kurilla’s family’s attorney has said that the family does not want their son to come back home.

Bernard Brown, the family’s lawyer, initially filed a petition to have the boy returned to his father or moved to a juvenile detention center. The family is from Damascus Township, Pa.; NY Daily News reports that the closest juvenile detention facility is approximately 80 miles away.

This request, however, was withdrawn shortly thereafter.

Brown said that the boy’s parents, who are “an emotional wreck,” do not feel comfortable having custody of him at this time.

NY Daily News reports that the family believes their son is being treated well in county prison, where he is housed alone in a separate cell away from the general population.

The family’s opinion, it would appear, is not one Tristen agrees with: detectives said they found a piece of notebook paper in his cell with “How to Escape” written on it.

According to Brown, Tristen has been given opportunities to play and draw in coloring books.

A prosecutor said that the 10-year-old boy had to be charged as an adult in the case because the crime of criminal homicide is excluded from juvenile law. Judges can move the cases to juvenile court later as they see fit.

Brown reportedly intends to have the case transferred to juvenile court if possible.

Marsha Levick, chief counsel of Philadelphia’s Juvenile Law Center, is reported to think it is obvious that the case should be handled in juvenile court.

Authorities have said that when Helen Novak, a woman in his grandfather’s care, yelled at him on Saturday, Tristen lost his temper and killed her. Police said that Tristen admitted to choking her with a cane and punching her several times in the throat and stomach.

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What is your opinion on this?
Do you think that the family is in the right to not want their child at home with them after the crime that he committed?
Do you think that you would respond the same way if it was your child?
Do you think that Tristin should have been tried as an adult at the age of ten?
Should he be in isolation for his crime?

I think it's easy for us all to say that we would always want our child at home with us. However sometimes that's not the best thing. There is a lot of information not shared in this particular article. For example:

are there other children in the home?

Have the parents noticed a problem with their son and tried to seek help many times?

Is this his first offense of extreme anger?

The being tried as an adult at 10..that's a hard one. Obviously he committed a horrible crime. He's only 10 though. That is a long time to be locked away for murder if it's a life sentence.

I think the isolation right now is not because of his crime. It's because he is currently being charged as an adult. Who would want a 10 yr old child housed in the same part of the prison as adult offenders? It's probably for his own protection.

I feel for all parties involved.

In my opinion, this kid needs serious help and his parents wouldn't be able to help him whatsoever. It must be absolutely heartbreaking for them and I'm sure they feel incredibly guilty.
The kid needs to be in a hospital with doctors trying to figure out what what wrong in his brain, not at home

The child is dangerous and needs to be in custody. Hopefully he will get the help he needs and not be left to rot!

I think its hard for the parents not to want him at home..but when a 10 year old has extreme anger like that to where he murders an adult, Im sure a lot go through the parents minds. What if they went to discipline him and he retaliated while they were awake or asleep? What if their are other children at home? Obviously this boy needs a lot of help, or has been getting help for a while but wasnt working. I think he does need to be where he can get the help he needs and the parents are not going to be able to help the way he needs it. As for being in isolation, he is in a jail with adult offenders, he would not survive so being in isolation is for his safety.

I agree with the other posters...im sure the parents feel incredibly guilty and want him to have the best care and treatment that he can get, and he probably can not get that at home...it makes you wonder what is wrong in his brain that he is capable of such a horrendous crime like that...i feel for his family and the family of the woman he murdered...