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Teenagers charged in 'Mortal Kombat' tragedy photo

Oh dear. When the game haters of the world hear about this one, there's going to be a field day to rival the Romans reveling over bloody crucifixions. Apparently on December 6th, 7 year old Zoe Garcia was being watched by her older sister Heather Trujillo, 16 and her boyfriend Lamar Roberts, 17. After some drinking, the two teens decided to act out the game Mortal Kombat and decided to get Zoe in on the action.

According to Heather, they were hitting and kicking Zoe while acting out the game and even dropped her on her side, breaking her wrist in the process. Roberts, who claimed to be a martial arts expert, says that Zoe asked him to stop hitting her but due to his state of intoxication he did not comply. He performed a back kick on the child, which she did not get up from. The teens tried to revive her several times and did not succeed. The cause of death was later named as "blunt force trauma" to her brain and central nervous system.

Digging into the family background is equally as upsetting as the incident itself, with many reports of previous abuse within the household. Zoe actually admitted to another babysitter that Lamar had hit her before when asked about bruises on her body. Neighbors also commented that Zoe played alone and was openly resistant to wanting to go home.

Heather and Lamar were arrested this past Tuesday on charges of child abuse resulting in death. They are currently in custody, each being held on a $100,000 bond.

I'm sure you're wondering why I haven't raved about setting these kids on fire, as I so love to do (set things on fire, not specifically kids.) I would, but our own Jonathan Holmes has a separate editorial on the subject following this news piece, so if you want to get your opinion in check it out and map out how you're feeling about this tragic turn of events.

[Via Denver Post


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76 comments | showing # 51 to 76

Cheeburga's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 10:43
Cheeburga
Agreed.
foxhound009's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 10:50
foxhound009
yup... fucking drunk ass trash bitch no good scum low life parents...
BA Chieftain's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 11:23
BA Chieftain
I feel that the article was relatively unbiased and mentioned all related factors involved in the death. So, it really speaks to our society when the key words that are pulled out, amongst "neglect" and "alcohol" and "abuse" and "mortal kombat", are still undeniably "mortal kombat".

Look, I played as much video games as any other kid growing up. Never did I desire, let alone execute, a violent thrashing upon someone 10 years younger than me. BLAME SOMEONE ELSE!
MissHinasaki's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 11:46
MissHinasaki
Not only is this just a plain fucking disgusting act, but they decided to blame it on video games?! WTF!

How is beating a child to death influenced by video games?!

I'd blame the alcohol first. Or maybe just the assholes who fucking did it.
Corak's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 12:03
Corak
Agree with the comments here. Terrible tragedy. But everything in their past is going to get overlooked because the whole "violent video game causes teens to kill" sounds a whole lot better than "teens with troubled past and alcohol abuse kill kid." Which one would the general public tune in to watch or pay attention to? The latter is a "well no shit" story, while the other peaks your interest and you stay and watch. The media is a business now not a news outlet like it once used to be, you know where there were only 3 news channels, and no internet, and they just gave you the story? Now you have mouthpieces that just spout off whatever comes into their heads and poison the people watching it, Nancy Grace I'm looking at you.
timtheterrible's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 12:04
timtheterrible
@Trunxcam

Are you talking about Ed Gein?
brainderailment's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 12:31
brainderailment
You bet they'll have a field day, and won't mention UNDER AGED DRINKING at all.
xXKDashXx's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 12:54
xXKDashXx
A dumb drunk teen performs Martial Arts moves on the girl and its Mortal Kombat fault?. So if they would have stomp her to death, who would they have blamed, DDR? Assholes looking for an scapegoat when the real culprit here was alcohol.
Suff0cat's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 13:14
Suff0cat
What does this have to do with Mortal Kombat? Did I miss the part that said they were throwing spears and yelling GET OVER HERE?
moot button's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 13:18
moot button
fucking scum. make them eat their own shit until they puke, then inject that poopuke into their fucking bloodstream.
Sharpless's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 13:53
Sharpless
I can't believe how stupid and sensationalist the press can be. And we're not even talking about Fox or CNN. First and foremost, these kids were stupid. Dumb as a bowl of mice, shit-for-brains stupid. (And the mother clearly couldn't have been that bright for letting them watch her kids.) Secondly, they were drunk - underage, illegally. Why are these not the main focus of the article? The game may have given them something to act out, but they clearly were drunk and stupid enough to act out, whether they had something to imitate or not.
trunxkam45's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 14:00
trunxkam45
@timtheterrible:

No, Robert Pickton.
Eschatos's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 15:17
Eschatos
That just fucking sucks. Things like this make me support eugenics, I'm sorry to say.
Gorelord's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 16:10
Gorelord
instead of blaming video games they could have just told the cops she fell down the stairs.
Cheeburga's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 16:43
Cheeburga
Fucking glad I did my Research Paper on this topic.
MasterMS's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 16:49
MasterMS
Oh my god the poor girl. I feel so bad
bayushi's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 17:16
bayushi
I can see the knee jerk reaction to want the death penalty, believe me I get the anger. But killing these 2 idiots won't bring back that 7 year old girl. Her sister has to live with the fact that she aided in killing her. That whole family is so fucked up. Alcohol, physical abuse, etc - Just sad all around.
I weep for Zoe.
Fading Star's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 18:13
Fading Star
This really sucks :(.
Cyberxion's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 18:52
Cyberxion
@Bayushi

Knee-jerk reaction? Nah, just pure, undiluted justice really. Some people just feel that when you've taken away someone's life, you really ought not to be given the chance to live out yours to it's natural end.

Maybe it's sort of barbaric, but y'know, I've never really seen any valid arguments against it. Just bleeding-heart stuff from people who have their hearts in the right place, while their heads are off somewhere else entirely.

And y'know, being that they thought it perfectly fine to engage in the actions that, y'know, ended up killing the poor kid, who's to say that it'll really weigh too much on either of these people's minds anyway?
When you consider that not only did she come from a bad background, but that some people are just dyed-in-the-wool psychotic assholes, there's a very real chance that she might not end up feeling the sort of mental anguish that she ought to feel over this for the rest of her life.
So should people not advocate the death penalty then, when the possibility is that the only way in which this would inconvenience either of the killers is that they'll have to hang out in prison for awhile?

I'm not advocating the death-penalty really. I just think that if that's the route the courts take in deciding their fate, then I'm not gonna stand in a picket-line and cry injustice, 'cause I don't see it that way at all myself.
Cyberxion's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 18:54
Cyberxion
While I don't believe that those advocating the death penalty are reacting in a knee-jerk fashion, my post sort of did I guess. Having read the story, it looks like the maximum penalty they'll get is 48 years in prison, making the death penalty issue a moot point.
DryvBy's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 20:19
DryvBy
I dunno why gamers care about this lame stuff. I mean who cares what people think.

"...we'll have nothing to fight for..." mc chris - Wiid
MisterMingo's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 20:42
MisterMingo
"Maybe it's sort of barbaric, but y'know, I've never really seen any valid arguments against it. Just bleeding-heart stuff from people who have their hearts in the right place, while their heads are off somewhere else entirely."

I think my "there is no life after death and death is an easy out" argument holds up pretty well. Timothy McVeigh looked about as happy as a pig in shit to get sentenced to death. I'm wiling to bet he shared my sentiments.

And thinking confined spaces, boredom, and butt rape is more torturous than going to sleep for eternity makes me a spacey bleeding heart? That's news to me.
Cyberxion's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 23:38
Cyberxion
@MisterMIngo

Who the hell are you? No, all semi-kidding aside, I never read your post. So if you expressed the opinion that confined spaces, boredom, and ass rape are more torturous than yadda-yadda blah-blah, then that's great, and you can consider yourself one of the few who actually managed an even semi-decent argument for keeping douches like these two alive.

But really, maybe I failed to make myself clear, or maybe you're just loosely interpreting what I said so that you can justify trotting out your "Death is an easy way out" argument (as if I ever read it in the first place), but I thought the meaning of "bleeding-heart" sorta spoke for itself. My mistake.

See, you're not a bleeding-heart. You seem to wish these two to suffer horribly, whether by being bored to death, being confined to small spaces, being raped in the ass, or any combination of the three.
You don't seem to be against the death penalty for the sake of being against it, but because you feel that death is an easy out, and so is not a fitting punishment. Rather than a bleeding-heart, that makes you someone who feels that the alternative to the death penalty would be a worse punishment.

I can see where you're coming from even if I disagree, being that they still get to live even if it's not comfortably, whereas the girl they killed will never see another day. I don't begrudge you the right to your opinion any more than I would the true bleeding-hearts, really. But the point is, you're not one of them, you likely knew it going in, but you still posted all of that anyway.

Okay.
Cyberxion's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/20/2007 23:44
Cyberxion
Eh, in retrospect, maybe you didn't interpret it incorrectly. I suck at making transitions from one thought to another, and went from talking about bleeding-hearts to talking about how prison probably won't do anything to this chick, with no devision between the two topics.

Even so, I meant that the arguments against the death-penalty are usually the bleeding-heart sort, not that anyone advocating prison is a bleeding-heart. I do think though, that prison might not do a damn thing to this chick, but that's speculation. I don't know how nuts she is, just that she was nuts enough to do things to her sister that led to her death.

Meh.
Azereki's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/21/2007 18:49
Azereki
I hope the world ends in 2012 like it's supposed to.
Cheeburga's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/21/2007 23:27
Cheeburga
I don't.
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