http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/826486 ... video-game

A teenager in the US has been sentenced to 23 years behind bars for shooting dead his mother after she took away his favourite video game.

Daniel Petric, 17, escaped a life sentence after his minister father testified that his son had often expressed remorse over the October 2007 killing, Fox News reports.

Mark Petric, who was also wounded in the shooting, had pleaded for judge to be lenient on his son.

"He still does not understand why he did something so terrible," Mark Petric told the court.

"[Daniel says] Dad, I miss mum … I miss mum."

The court heard the teenager was so obsessed by fictional violence in video games that he may have believed death was not real.

The teenager had apparently snapped after his parents took the game Halo 3 away from him.

Lawyers for Petric said the teenager’s obsession with video games made him less responsible for the killing, a claim the prosecution disputed.

The teenager shook his head and sniffed quietly as the judge handed down the sentence.

The Article wrote:Fox News

Stopped reading right there.

Mappy wrote:

The Article wrote:Fox News

Stopped reading right there.

Oh, I'm sure conservatives will be using this as fuel, no doubt. But I still think it's tragic.

Last Exile wrote:The court heard the teenager was so obsessed by fictional violence in video games that he may have believed death was not real.

Unless they also heard that he's developmentally disadvantaged (or whatever the current PC term is), it's a mistrial.