Brett Reider

Brett Reider (October 8, 1977) is an American man who gained national attention in 1993 when he stabbed his mother to death at age fifteen after suffering years of physical and psychological abuse. HBO profiled his case years later in a documentary special called "Brett Killed Mom: A Sister's Diary".

Family life

Brett was the second and youngest child to his parents Darwin and Claudia Reider. His sister Alissa had been born years before. The Reider family had been seen as sort of an All-American Family by the community for Darwin's hard work and Claudia's charity work. However, it appeared that over time Claudia became obsessed with keeping up a pristine image to the community and wanted her children to be nothing but the best. She encouraged them to get into sports and take advanced classes at school.

That obsession for perfection became almost manic. She soon expected nothing but the best from both Brett and Alissa and when they didn't measure up to her standards she would abuse them physically and scream at them. Darwin for his part would not get involved in the disputes unless Claudia became completely violent with their two children. Darwin's work also caused him to be away from home for long periods of time, but he would later admit that he used his work simply as an excuse to stay away from his wife. He would call home and say he was working when he was just really living in hotels, watching movies, and shopping. Meanwhile the two kids were left home alone with their unstable mother. Millions of Americans would later accuse him of cowardice and child neglect for his gross inaction, for he rarely protected his children from Claudia. Many believe that Claudia's murder and his son's imprisionment could have been prevented had he done something.

The Reider family made a lot of home videos before Claudia's death and though Claudia's physical abuse was never recorded, her verbal abuse was clearly there. In some footage she's seen to call Brett stupid and calls Alissa a floozy as she's getting ready for a date.

Eventually, Alissa was accepted into the University of Nebraska and lived on campus. Unfortunately, this meant that Brett felt the full front of Claudia's abuse. One night he sneaked out to go to a party and she beat him severely in the middle of the street. Once home Alissa tried to stand up for him and ended up getting beaten too. Claudia did not cool down by the next morning and Brett became so deperate that he called 9-1-1 on her. The officer who arrived on the scene did not seem to take the situation seriously and Brett was too afraid to talk to him. The officer left soon after.

The Murder

It wasn't too long afterwards that Brett started to reach his breaking point and actually plotted to kill Claudia. He made friends with another boy at his high school who had access to firearms and they frequently discussed different methods of killing her.

One day he came home from school and Claudia quickly became violent with him when she found out he'd only scored an 85 on a quiz. The two soon got into a scuffle, wherein which she was beating him and he started zapping her with a stun gun. Not too long afterwards Brett grabbed hold of a knife and stabbed Claudia in the chest. Almost immediately afterwards he fled the house and called 9-1-1. Though Claudia was still alive when paramedics arrived, she died soon after from her injuries.

Trial

Brett was put on trial for Claudia's murder. The very boy with whom he talked of killing his mother about took the stand against him for the prosecution. Meanwhile Brett's entire family, including his father and sister, stepped up to his defense, citing Claudia's abuse as the reason for the crime. As the trial gained nationwide attention, many support groups and others sent the presiding judge letters, pleading for leniency.

Brett was found guilty of second-degree murder because the judge felt that though he talked of killing his mother he most likely did "not" intend to act upon it during the talks. He was sentence to a maximum of 11 to 20 years in the Lincoln Correctional Center.

Aftermath

After serving 6 years of his 11-20 year sentence, Brett was let out of prison.