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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Two years after a 16-year-old boy was charged with killing his stepfather, his case remains in limbo.
Rosco Brackett is charged with killing 52-year-old James Michael George in 2012, who his wife characterized as demanding and controlling, during a fight about school.
The case made headlines when the boy was ordered to be tried as an adult for the crime last year, but the trial was canceled as plea negotiations continued. On Friday, a judge agreed to again postpone a hearing in the case until Nov. 14. Attorneys on the case declined to comment.
Prosecutors say the family kept more than 18 firearms in the home, and Brackett went for a gun in the living room when he saw his stepfather turn toward the bedroom, where other guns were stored.
Brackett told police his stepfather hit him after he fired that first shot, but police didn't find any marks on his body.
The teenager was accused of hiding the weapon, as well as the shirt he was wearing at the time of the shooting. Police said he originally claimed to be in his room, but later told investigators he pulled the trigger.
James George was shot in the head Sept. 13, 2012, and died the next morning.
The teen's mother, Gina George, said at a preliminary hearing last year that she was planning to leave her husband at the time of his death, but didn't want to tell him until she and her son were out of the state, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
"I was done," Gina George testified, according to the newspaper. "I asked (Rosco) if he wanted to come with me, and of course he did. ... I didn't have to tell him why. It was a small duplex. He heard the fights."
She said her husband didn't want her to work, and would not let her leave the house at night after he got home.
James George's relatives said he and Brackett initially got along, but their relationship grew strained over the years.
Brackett had one prior juvenile shoplifting case on his record before the shooting.
Brackett remains in the Salt Lake County jail on $1 million bail. Now 19, he could face up to life in prison if convicted on murder and other charges.
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