COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 21 (UPI) -- An Ohio judge has ruled a 12-year-old accused of shooting and killing his mother's boyfriend is competent to stand trial.
A tentative trial date of Oct. 17 for Nicholas Boleware, facing a delinquency count of murder, was set Monday by Delaware County Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth Spicer, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Boleware and his mother Wendy had been living with Jeffrey Reece, 38, for six months before the shooting just outside Sunbury.
Wendy Boleware had met Reece online.
On April 16, Nicholas Boleware called 911 to report the shooting, telling the dispatcher, "I just shot my stepdad. He was threatening me and my mom."
Boleware was evaluated by a psychiatrist and found to be competent to aid in his own defense and understand the court proceedings.
Legal experts say it can be difficult to prove competency in a 12-year-old faced with the intricacies of a courtroom trial.
Prosecutors could still file a "serious youth offender" motion, which gives a child the right to a jury trial in juvenile court.
If convicted, Boleware could be given a suspended adult sentence for murder, 15 years to life.
He would be held until he was 21 in a state youth prison, and if he completed that term satisfactorily, would never serve a day of his adult sentence, the Dispatch reported.
