Daniel Petric

Daniel's trial was held on December 15, 2008 at Lorain County Common Pleas in front of Judge James Burge. No jury was present at the trial. His defense attorney, James Kersey, claimed that because of the enormous amount of stress put on him due to his severe infection, Daniel was much more susceptible to being influenced by the game. He argued that Daniel was not in the right state of mind to understand the finality of shooting his parents. He had been playing the game so long that he did not comprehend the fact that death was real and permanent. The prosecuting attorney disagreed, and said that Daniel showed no remorse for his actions and that he had tried to set up the shootings as suicide by placing the gun in his father's hand. Daniel was tried for murder. Due to his age, Daniel could not have been sentenced to death. The judge sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 23 years, which was the minimum sentence. The maximum sentence Daniel faced was life in prison without parole, which was what the prosecuting attorney recommended for him. The case has been highlighted in papers and articles regarding video game addiction and video game violence. Halo 3 publishers Microsoft refused to comment on the case beyond a statement that "[w]e are aware of the situation and it is a tragic case." Petric is currently imprisoned in the Trumbull Correctional Institution.

On October 20, 2007, about one week after the game was confiscated, Daniel used his father's key to unlock the safe and take it back, also taking his father's handgun. Court reports stated that Daniel came up behind his parents as they were relaxing on their couch in the living room and said: “Would you close your eyes, I have a surprise for you.” Daniel then proceeded to shoot both of his parents. His father said that “his head went numb and he saw blood pouring down from his skull.” Daniel shot his mother in the head, arms, and chest, killing her. In court, his father testified that after Daniel shot both of his parents, he tried to make the event look like a murder-suicide by placing the gun in his father's hand whilst saying to him, “Hey dad, here’s your gun. Take it.” A few minutes later, his sister and her husband, Heidi and Andrew Archer, came over for their prior plans of watching a baseball game together. Daniel lied to them that they should not come in because their parents had been fighting. Then, they heard groaning and pushed their way through to find the aftermath of the shooting. Heidi called the police, and before they got there Daniel made an escape attempt by driving off in the family's van with the Halo 3 game in the passenger seat. The police caught up with him and forced him out of the van via Roadblock. When the police were arresting him, he yelled: "My Dad shot my Mom!"

Daniel Petric (born August 24, 1991) is a convicted murderer from Wellington, Ohio. At age 16, Petric shot both of his parents when his father confiscated his copy of the video game Halo 3. His mother was killed in the attack while his father was badly injured, but managed to make a recovery.