The heart-wrenching stories about the 11-year-old boy accused of killing his father, David Paul Champ, just keep coming.
The boy, accused of murder in Jackson County Juvenile Court, lived in squalor. The
Jackson County Health Department taped a notice on the home's front
door, warning of "mold, raw sewage, dangerous wiring and holes in the
floor."
The boy's neighbors are talking, and the theme is the same. As one neighbor told the Star, "He never really had a chance."
citing an unconfirmed report, reported that Champ allegedly forced the
boy to shoot him, allegedly threatening to cut off the boy's fingers.
The Star described
the home at at 1016 South Woodland Avenue as "ramshackle" and the site
of complaints from the Health Department. The daily also referred to
Champ as "a scrap dealer known for rough talk and causing heartache" and
a "pushy" hotheaded "loner" who "didn't know how" to care for his son.
Champ had been to prison three times including five years for "assault
with an intent to kill and auto theft" in the 1970s.
But the
neighbors filled in some of the blanks, noting that the "boy was never
happy. But when you think about what all was going on over there, how
could he be?"
So at this point, what we know is there's a man
dead and his son is accused of killing him. And the son had a pretty
shitty life. So we're left to debate: Should the boy be charged with
murder? Is this a kid who slipped through the cracks?
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