Boy who killed neo-Nazi dad

RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) - Prosecutors rested their case on Monday against a 12-year-old California boy charged with killing his neo-Nazi father, and a defense lawyer said the boy may testify on his own behalf as the trial neared a conclusion.

Defense attorney Matthew Hardy said he would confer with his client, Joseph Hall, before deciding whether to call him as the final witness in the juvenile case, which resumed in Riverside County Superior Court following a two-month break.

The defense concedes that Hall, then 10 years old, shot his father at point blank range in May 2011 but argued that he should not be held criminally responsible. The gun belonged to his father, Jeffrey Hall, 32.

If the boy does not testify, both sides could present closing arguments on Wednesday in a case that has drawn attention because of the father's neo-Nazi associations and the rarity of a parent being slain by a child so young.

Hardy also formally withdrew a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and said that he would probably ask for the charges against Hall to be dismissed on the grounds that prosecutors had not proven the boy was culpable.

Kathleen Heide, a criminologist who specializes in juvenile offenders, has said that 8,000 murder victims over the past 32 years were slain by their offspring, but only 16 of those were committed by defendants aged 10 or younger.

A young boy who killed his neo-Nazi dad is blaming it on the show "Criminal Minds." On Jan. 7, LA Times reported that the young boy saw an episode of "Criminal Minds" where a young boy killed his abusive father and didn't get in any trouble. Because of this case, he thought that he could get away with it.

The boy was only 10-years-old when he killed his father and at this time he is being tried as a juvenile. They haven't even released his name yet because of his age. His young sister lied at first about it saying that their step-mom told him to do it, but she later changed her story