A 12-year-old Big Prairie boy is facing incarceration until age 21 after admitting to a charge that he shot and killed his mother.
Joseph McVay, 12, entered a plea of admission to one count of murder, June 10 in Holmes County Juvenile Court. An admission plea is essentially the same thing as a guilty plea.
McVays attorney, Andrew Hyde, declined comment following the hearing. McVay was further represented in the hearing by attorneys Doug Milhoan and Thomas White.
McVay did not speak during the hearing, except to answer yes/no questions from Juvenile Court Judge Thomas Lee. When asked by Lee if he understood the nature of the charge and what could happen to him, McVay answered, Yes, sir.
McVays father, half-sister and grandmother were present in court during the hearing.
The charge against McVay stems from Jan. 2, 2011, when McVay shot his mother, Deborah McVay, 46, with a .22 caliber rifle at their Big Prairie residence. The shooting was witnessed by McVays half-sister. In a telephone call at a neighbors residence following the shooting, McVay told a dispatcher at the Holmes County Sheriffs office that he had shot his mother and told several other deputies the same.
The shooting was apparently prompted by an argument over chores.
Holmes County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Knowling said the facts of the case were never in dispute and the case centered around what to do with Joseph.
The whole point of this is (that) this is very difficult because of his age, Knowling said. A trial was not going to benefit either side. It was about what to do with him.
Knowling said that no agreement has been reached regarding sentencing. Knowling suggested that he expects some form of incarceration, saying that releasing Joseph back into society was off the table.
McVay is currently being held at an undisclosed facility. The name of the facility was placed under a gag order barring the press from releasing it.
Lee ordered a presentence report, to be completed by juvenile probation authorities. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 9.
