Xbox rage child killer convicted of third-degree murder

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jan 30th 2008 3:30PM

Tyrone Spellman was found guilty yesterday of third-degree murder for killing his 17-month-old daughter in 2006 after she knocked over his Xbox. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the jury reached the verdict after eight hours, adding that Spellman faces 23.5 to 47 years in prison. He has three prior drug convictions.

Apparently, after impulsively beating his daughter to death, Spellman propped the dead child by some barbells in order to mask the death as an accident in the eyes of arriving EMTs. In a post-verdict conversation, Prosecutor James Berardinelli was told by the forewoman that the jury believed Spellman acted "in a rage" but didn't mean to kill the child.

Source

Tags: gamekillings, justice, murder, philadelphia, spellman, videogamemurder, Xbox

Reader Comments (91)

I certainly do not disrespect the dead, let alone the innocent. What he did is horrible, should at least understand his reasoning. It would make you angry. You may not admit it, or you may not get as angry as he obviously did, but it happens.

But when it happens, and you then do an unthinkable thing as harming another, let alone killing, sure. punish him. 17 months is too soft for what he did. Eye for an eye, he should certainly not get to live after it.

I'm sorry I attempted to liven up the place with a joke aimed at someone else. But I'm also sad that people refuse to see the lighter side at any one time.

I'm disgusted. He killed his child because she knocked xbox down? A life sentence isn't enough for this trash.

A life sentance is too good for this man. He should be hunged, then drawed and quatered and then he should be burned. After that he should reincarnate as one of Micheal Vick's dogs. Anybody that will kill his child does not deserve to live.

I don't believe in the death penalty because if murder is illegal, and it's consequence is death, than why is killing that person a solution in the first place? Where is the double standard?

Twinkie, I assume you are against imprisonment as a form of punishment as well.

If kidnapping and imprisoning someone is illegal, and its consequence is imprisonment, than why is imprisoning that person a solution in the first place? Where is the double standard?

So since you are against the death penalty, and you are against imprisoning people, I take it you think this guy should have received community service for killing his baby.

There is no double-standard in the death penalty; Someone murders somebody else, thus they forfeit their right to life by taking someone else's. I'm sick of hearing and reading about people killing another person, or multiple people, just to have a bunch of wannabe hippies crying out that it's against the criminal's rights to sentence them to death. The whole idea of being a criminal is you've given up your rights when you decided to break the law and act out against other people.

Actually copa, community service is out of the question too. Last I checked, slavery is illegal.

The man had prior drug convictions and still had a daughter. Not exactly the model of upright thinking and clean living. This is all the more reason I believe people should be forced to have a license to breed--yeah, yeah, Big Brother, Ender's Game, whatever. But at least it'd prevent people like this guy from breeding. People that can not raise their children should not have any. The sad thing is that games are going to trashed for this act when it could have been some other object that could have been knocked over.

Even so, I do feel sad for him (if he is regretting). How shitty would you feel if you just realized you killed your daughter over a video game.

Didn't mean to do it my ass. Frack this guttless bitch. How can you not know that hitting a child in the face and throwing her is a bad idea. I am a father of 2 boys and yes I have THOUGHT about physically harming my children when they really get on my nerves...but I and many other normal sane parents do not ACT on such behavior. He has no self-control and no respect for life.

It sickens me that the media will latch on to the video-game part of this instead of the real issues here. That this waste of life would have serioulsy hurt or killed his child over a bowl of Cornflakes.

Frack him.

My dog chewed my GH3 disc and my 20 month old son put it in my PS3 and it got stuck in there. I had to send it in. I was mad, but it never even crossed my mind to hurt the dog or my son over it.
I sent it in last Thursday and got it back today. Less than a week turnaround and they didn't make me pay for it either. :)

You know,
this is pretty much as unrelated to video games as it gets, while still having any sort of involvement.

As fellow video game enthusiasts, I really wouldn't expect joystiq writers to post this sort of thing, making it seem like this sort of act of rage and inhumanity is status quo for gamers.

I usually am not one to point out relevance of posts here, or any of the blogs i read, but it's not really relevant and it kind of shits on your readers by making us out to be blood thirsty psychopaths.

This sort of thing probably would have occurred with this guy if he's the loose cannon that he would have to be to do such a thing.

Hell, just yesterday there was an article on Digg about how a nutso tasered his 18 month old to "toughen him up". A taser's a gadget! Call Engadget!

@Grant

That is dumb.

You're speaking of censorship to improve the tone of the website/blog.

Go watch CNN.

Go watch CNN? This is a blog, not a news site. Censorship and relevance are two completely different beasts.
On blogs, things relevant to the topic are usually posted.

This is related to video games in the smallest possible factor. You can replace xbox with any sort of item of value in this story and it would read the exact same way.

By giving this story space on Joystiq they are validating what mass media tries to do by glorifying and scapegoating games/gamers. Posting it here shows that this has something to do with video games, and not that this guy is just a nut job with serious issues.

Sorry Grant, but you just pretty much stated WHY it is that this nwes was posted here...

"mass media tries to do by glorifying and scapegoating games/gamers."

Its related because mass media blames it all on the video games, and the gaming community, through their opinions, show otherwise...

This is not validating, but opposing what it is stating. What do you want us to do? just leave it alone, let people think that it was actually the video games themselves that cause this, and keep thinking that video games are the cause of all the bad things that happen? no thank you

Really?

by posting this we are "fighting the man"?
No, posting this here does nothing but further associate gamers with trash like this.
Posting things on a message board never got anything solved except make people's e-peens grow.

The author of the post, alex sliwinski, doesn't even bother to comment on the matter, mentioning the mass medias love for making gamers out to be monsters or how terrible an event like this is would at least give this some sort of purpose here. but no, it is leaving any sort of armchair revolutionizing to the commenter's.

Sure, we all condemn him, but do you really think anyone who is going to make a point about video games is going to read the comments section? No, they are going to focus on the main page, and the fact that we've just posted our "video game killer of the month".

How do you beat someone to death, especially a 17 month old baby, and not mean it?

Well logisticly speaking it is possible for an individual to go into a state of rage and lash out uncontrollably.

Still isn't an excuse. If you can't show enough self control to prevent rational thought from controlling your actions your just as responsible for your actions. IMO anyway... Drinking and drugging are the same. You chose to take the drugs your actions during that affected time are your responsibility...

"He has three prior drug convictions."

I cannot see someone killing some one if someone nocked over anything, unless

A) They have mental health problems

B) Or taking drugs

Grant, I see what you're saying but I have to disagree. IMHO it is relevant and deserves to be posted if only to show that this kind of behaviour is not accepted or in any way condoned by gamers(poor attempts at humour aside).

I don't want him to die, I don't want him to be tortured and I'm agnostic so I don't believe in Hell. Personally, I want him to go to jail for the rest of his life.

Posted above:

"By giving this story space on Joystiq they are validating what mass media tries to do by glorifying and scapegoating games/gamers. Posting it here shows that this has something to do with video games, and not that this guy is just a nut job with serious issues."

Are you serious? This jackass should get life without parole. No question.

I hear that at some prisons the inmates are allowed some free time with an Xbox... I hope the irony of that is not lost on any of you, since it would be a real shame if it only took a few months for this scum to "get back into the swing of things" as it were. I bet the guards will make a point of denying this guy the one thing he apparently loves more than anything else in the world.

This is deep and complicated, so I don't want to talk about how long the sentence should have been, but I'd like to say that kids knocking expensive crap over is as normal as the sun.

The only time I ever got angry at a little kid was when I accidentally screamed at my one year old nephew at the time, because me and his father (my bro) were in a heated game of Fifa on the gamecube and my nephew was trying to get my attention. I immediately felt like crap afterwards and this was over 5 years ago when I was still a kid. To see that a grown man can do something that didn't even cross the mind of a kid is just mind bugling. It's stories like these that make me lose hope in humanity and as much as I'm against capital punishment...I can make exceptions.

It looks like someone who posted on this thread (cannot remember the name because it lacks creativity) learned the word frack from Urban Dictionary today.

The bottom line is this guy does need to burn in hell.

That's be Kerazy Ken, and I totally agree.

Uh no. I have been using frack since the 1st time I heard it on BSG.
You say my name lacks creativity?
So which one do you prefer then?
Hard Gay
Killjebus
GodisaMyth
Gay Brady
I have been using KayRazy Ken Kutaragi because I was accused of working for Sony so I realized that my cover was blown and I came clean.
Would you prefer I go back to one of the other names?
Maybe you were not around when all of the daily whining, bitching, and moaning about my other name on this blog. I will not go back to that name because I do not want the few remaining trees that we have left needlessly wasted on some crybabies tears.

Praise be to Llamas

He's an animal and should die like any rabid animal.

Guess the Weekend At Bernie's trick didn't work.

That's be Kerazy Ken, and I totally agree.

You don't even know how the comments section works? -1 to you. Loser.

I've watched a lot of these so called 'videogame' crime stories over the past couple years... They don't seem to have much to do with video games.

They seem to have more to do with a particular type of person that is notorious for their criminal propensity in general. But I guess that doesn't make an interesting story.

this guy is a real piece of garbage. He should get the death penalty just like those other to douchebags who murdered then mutilated six people and the dog. I read on the post about that, and there were all these hippie liberal tools blasting the post about those guys getting the death penalty. Especially this one guy named ALLSTAR. I hope ALLSTAR reads this, because he is total pussy bitch, along with everyone else who opposes the death penalty.

This still isn't what that bastard deserves!

Well, based on people's certain beliefs, the child will go to Heaven to spend eternity in peace, and daddy is going to get pounded in the rear in prison for being a child killer. Amen.

Third-degree murder?

Anyone mind explaining all of this?

I think the real question is how a 17-month-old managed to move an Xbox.

And why he had it standing vertically, at that.

Did it scratch the disc inside? Red ring of death?

Even as bad as this is, 27 years seems a bit much, especially for 3rd degree murder. (I didn't even know there was a degree less than 2nd.)

Ah! The article says he "will face a maximum penalty of 23.5 to 47 years in prison"
So, he hasn't been sentenced yet.

Forgive me for not jumping on the "lock him up forever" bandwagon, but this man has already killed his daughter, and however long he's in jail will be a long time to think about it. He deserves another chance... eventually.

no wait did I just here you right??? Are you out of your friggin mind you aging hippy liberal douche.. did I miss something cause I read this guy he killed someone over a video game a child not even two years old and you think this guy deserves a second chance.. I have never in my life heard a more idiotic statement in my life.. you and guys like this are everything that’s wrong with this world people who commit heinous crimes and scumbags who feel bad for the criminal and let them off so they can do it again... you are scum.

He does not deserve a second chance. There are actions that cross a line and the slaughter of an innocent is certainly one of those.

Previous 50 Comments

Xbox rage child killer convicted of third-degree murder

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