Debate Magazine

Family of 10 Y.o. Boy Who Murdered 90 Y.o. Woman Doesn’t Want Him Back

By Eowyn @DrEowyn

Tristen Kurilla

American society is breeding psychopaths.

The angelic-looking boy in the pic above is one of them.

He is Tristen Kurilla, age 10.

On Oct. 14, 2014, the AP and Daily Mail report that 10-year-old Tristen Kurilla from Pennsylvania has been charged as an adult in the beating death of a 90-year-old woman, Helen Novak.

Novak was in the care of Tristen’s grandfather, Anthony Virbitsky, on Sky Lake Road in Damascus Township, Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors in Wayne County said that on Oct. 11, county emergency responders got a call reporting the death of an elderly woman, Helen Novak.

District Attorney Janine Edwards said in a statement that Tristen’s mother, Martha Virbitsky, had brought the boy in to the state police barracks at Honesdale the same afternoon and reported that her son had told her that he had gone into the woman’s room to ask her a question and she yelled at him. So “he got mad, lost his temper and grabbed a cane and put it around Novak’s throat,” police said.

When Tristen was advised of his rights and interviewed by a trooper, the boy said he “pulled Novak down on the bed and held the cane on her throat and then punched her numerous times.” Tristen then went to his grandfather and first told him that the woman was “bleeding from her mouth” but denied he had harmed her.

Later, the boy admitted that he had punched the woman and put a cane around her neck. He described how he had pushed the cane into Novak’s throat for several seconds and then punched her five times in the throat and the stomach. “I was only trying to hurt her,” Kurilla told detectives.

Police said an autopsy performed at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale indicated blunt force trauma to the victim’s neck, and the death was ruled a homicide. Dr. Gary Ross also said the boy’s account to police “was consistent with the injuries he observed.”

Tristen was charged as an adult with criminal homicide and aggravated assault, with the prosecutor’s office noting that the crime of homicide “is specifically excluded from the juvenile act” and therefore “a juvenile who commits the crime of homicide is charged as an adult.” Kurilla is being held without bail pending an October 22 preliminary hearing.

According to court documents cited by WFMZ, the boy’s mother, Martha Virbitsky, told police she “has had a lot of trouble with Tristen and that he has had some mental difficulties.”

Here is another pic of Kurilla making the I-love-you devil’s horns sign:tristen-kurillaAccording to Ericka Sóuter of CafeMom, Oct. 16, 2014:

Tristen’s “parents don’t want him back. They reportedly would rather have the poor, troubled child behind bars awaiting trial than with them. [...]

Since being taken into custody, he has been held at jail in a private cell. Originally, the family’s attorney had petitioned to have the boy returned to his father or moved to a juvenile detention center. But that request has been rescinded. The juvenile facility is over 90 miles away, making it too hard to visit. As for the other option — they don’t want him back under their roof. His parents, apparently, are an ‘emotional wreck’ and don’t feel comfortable having him in their care. [...] So they want him to stay just where he is. They believe he is being treated well and is allowed to color and play. [...] Tristen may see things differently. Detectives found a piece of paper in his cell with ‘How to Escape’ written on it.”

~Eowyn


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