Cody Posey

Infobox Serial Killer
name=Cody Posey


caption=Cody Posey as seen on "truTV/Alamogordo Daily News" (formerly "CourtTV")
birth=birth date and age|1989|10|9
location=Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States of America
penalty=Original: Maximum adult sentence, Final: Jail time until he reaches the age of 21 with the possibility of parole since his 40th day of jail time (the latter was cancelled)
victims=3 (father (Delbert Paul Posey), stepmother (Tyrone Schmid), stepsister (Marelia Schmid))
beginyear=July 5, 2004
endyear=July 5, 2004
country=United States of America
states=Albuquerque, New Mexico
apprehended=January 16, 2006

Cody Posey (born October 9, 1989) is a New Mexico teenager who confessed to having killed his father, stepmother, and stepsister on July 5, 2004, when he was 14 years old. Posey was found guilty of various degrees of homicide. He was subsequently sentenced as a juvenile to be detained until he was 21 years old with the possibility of parole after 40 days.

Early life

Posey was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico. In 1992, when Cody was 3 years old, his parents Delbert Paul and Carla June (Clees), filed for divorce. This caused a very acrimonious custody dispute that lasted 8 years. Within that time period, Delbert married Sandy Paul. She and Cody had a good relationship, however she and Cody's father divorced in 1998. Cody's custody dispute ended in 2000, when Delbert Paul, who was more commonly referred to by his middle name "Paul", surrendered his parental rights to his ex-wife, Carla. She gained full custody, but it ended abruptly in a few short months after Carla was fatally injured in a roll-over car accident in which Cody was also a passenger. As a result, Cody Posey was returned to his father, who by then was married to his third wife, Tryone Schmid. In the process, Cody gained a younger stepsister, Marilea Schmid, who was approximately one year younger than he. Cody, his father, and new stepmother and stepsister lived at a ranch owned by ABC reporter Sam Donaldson, in Chavez Canyon, New Mexico. In 2001, Donaldson hired Paul Posey to manage the ranch.

Crime

On July 5, 2004, Cody Posey, after enduring years of abuse from his father, "snapped" after his father slapped him across the face for not cleaning the horse stalls fast enough. According to his defense team, prior to the murder, Cody was burnt with a welding rod and instructed by his father to have sex with Tryone. Cody told sheriff's deputies that he refused and ran off the property but did return later. The next day, upon being slapped and told to go in the house, Cody took a gun from his stepsister's saddlebag and loaded it. He went inside the house, where Tryone Posey was reading a book in the living room, and shot her twice in the head. Cody confessed that he shot her a second time to make sure he got the job done. The first shot was actually snake shot. Cody thought he had unloaded all the snake shot in favor of more lethal ammunition. Paul Posey, hearing the shots, ran inside where Cody was and was also shot to death. Next he pointed his weapon towards Marilea, who was behind Paul, shooting her in the head, "so she couldn't go tell or nothin'." (For months before the shootings the parents had her surveiling him at school and her reports often led to him being punished.) Cody dragged the bodies out of the house and loaded them in the bucket of a John-Deere backhoe. Cody admitted he attempted to bury them in a nearby plot of land, but after not being able to break the hard ground, opted to bury them in a shallow grave in a manure pile. After the murders, Cody changed clothes and drove his father's truck to the store for a can of Sprite. He then drove to a friend's house staying there until his arrest.

The following Tuesday, Sam Donaldson could not reach his employee Paul Posey on the phone, so he and his wife drove out to the Posey ranch. Mr. Donaldson entered the house to discover something was very wrong. He witnessed the congealed blood by the refrigerator where Cody shot Paul in the head as he came through the door. Mr. Donaldson immediately called a friend and law enforcement officer to investigate. It wasn't until after Cody confessed to the killings that the bodies were uncovered in the manure pile. Cody tossed the murder weapon (.38 special) in the river.

Trial

The trial began January 16, 2006. Sam Donaldson described Cody Posey as "withdrawn, like any typical teenager". Another witness Robert Sibbles, stated that the boy's disciplined and overly scheduled life involved sadism, humiliation, and isolation, which "did not allow for any kind of outlet." Since he planned the orders of the killings so that he would not get caught, the prosecution contends that actions taken by the defendant prove that he was aware of the fact that murdering his family was a crime. He shot Tryone first in order to keep her from calling 911 because she was inside the home. Various witnesses, however, testified that Paul Posey indeed was abusive and cruel to Cody. He frequently punched or slapped the boy. He gave Cody various chores around the ranch and they had to be done quickly. Cody's biological mother once reported him for child abuse, after Paul beat Cody with a board on the buttocks for bringing home bad grades. The defense suggested Tryone was also into the abuse. Marilea was favored by the couple over Cody and was instructed by Paul and her mother to keep tabs on Cody in school. Cody's defense attorney, Gary Mitchell, never denied that Cody murdered the family - instead he suggested the murder happened as a result of years of abuse and dissociation. Furthermore, the defense brought in evidence of incestuous pornography, which was found on Paul Posey's computer, the only computer in the home that had access to the internet. Marilea's and Cody's computers did not have the internet, and the times that the sites were visited the children were away at school. The prosecution, however, claims the child abuse claims are exaggerations. They portrayed Cody as a cold-blooded killer, who wanted to be rid of his family because they made him do chores and perform well in school. The prosecution submitted family photos to counter attack the defense's notion that Cody was not loved or included in family events.

Conclusion

On February 7, 2006, Posey was convicted of first degree murder in the death of his stepsister, second degree murder in the death of his stepmother, and voluntary manslaughter in the death of his father. He was also found guilty of four charges of evidence tampering. The prosecution pushed for a maximum adult sentence, which could have put Cody behind bars until he was in his 60s. At least half of the jurors wrote letters to Judge James Waylon Counts, asking for a juvenile sentence.

On February 23, 2006, Cody was sentenced by Judge Counts as a juvenile and is to remain in the custody of juvenile authorities until he reaches the age of 21. He could be released on parole since his 40th day in jail as, but that's unlikely to happen in his case.

On September 25, 2006, Cody was named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Miami attorney Jack Thompson on behalf of the surviving Posey relatives. Also named were "Grand Theft Auto" creator Rockstar Games, publisher Take-Two Interactive and PlayStation 2 manufacturer Sony. The lawsuit alleged Posey was trained by the video game "" to be more aggressive, and a more effective killer.cite web |url=http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1526&Itemid=2 |title=Antigame Crusader in ABQ |accessdate= |last=Daniels |first=Bruce |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=2006-09-25 |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=Albuquerque Journal |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ]

On December 19, 2007, Jack Thompson’s lawsuit against Sony and Take-Two was thrown out by New Mexico judge. Thompson claimed that Grand Theft Auto Vice City played a role in 14-year-old Cody Posey’s 2004 murder of his father, stepmother and stepsister. The judge dismissed Jack Thompson’s wrongful death suit since neither Sony or Take-Two have offices in New Mexico. Also New Mexico laws did not support Thompson’s wrongful death claim in the case. Take-Two has said they are pleased at the decision.

References

External links

* [http://www.courttv.com/trials/posey/?link=yhlk Cody Posey Trial Watch at Courttv.com]