Hearing depicts teen's conflicts
At home, he doted on his 1-year-old half-sister and was a devoted stepson. Away from home, he spoke glowingly of the Washington, D.C.-area snipers, clashed with minorities on his youth football team and terrorized fellow riders on his school bus.
The contrasts in the life of Gary Beck, 14, of Economy, Beaver County, emerged Monday during a hearing in Beaver County Court to determine if he should be tried as an adult in the Feb. 7 killing of his mother, Lee Ann Nauman, 31. After eight hours of testimony, the hearing was continued to Sept. 25.
Slightly more than two months after he killed his first deer and just two weeks before he was to be adopted by his stepfather, David Nauman, Beck, then 13, pumped shotgun blasts into his mother's chest and head and later called 911 to report the shooting, police said.
Beck was fascinated by guns, thrilled by the recent deer kill and closely followed the sniper story, according to psychiatrist Christine Martone, who interviewed Beck after he was arrested.
Beck said he wanted "to be a mercenary or a government-paid sharpshooter," Martone testified.
She said Beck remembered nothing between loading his first shell and when he called 911, though witnesses testified that he admitted to the killing and told them details of what he did during that time period.
Martone told Judge John McBride that, despite Beck's psychological troubles, if he were tried and sentenced as a juvenile he could be rehabilitated through the years of psychological therapy.
"Given his youth and emotional immaturity, I do not believe that his personality traits are entrenched," Martone said.
Martone, hired by the Beaver County District Attorney's Office to evaluate Beck, wound up testifying as a defense witness, saying, "I believe he can be rehabilitated ... by the time he's 21."
She said Beck came from a supportive family and expressed true remorse over what he had done.
Martone also said sending Beck to an adult prison would likely cause him to become even more troubled.
A parade of relatives -- including Lee Ann Nauman's sister and mother -- testified that Beck was a well-behaved and loving, if sometimes unruly, boy.
"I love Gary," said Alice McElwain, the slain woman's mother. "He could live at my home if he could walk out of here."
Martone said Beck was likely suffering from "adjustment disorder," and said he was upset that his mother and stepfather had not been speaking to him since his latest school suspension, three days before the crime.
Ambridge Area Junior High School expelled Beck for bringing shotgun shells onto the bus. Martone said Beck was apprehensive about being removed from school and his friends.
Beaver County District Attorney John Brown, though he didn't have time to call all his witnesses, painted a darker picture of Beck.
The boy has been in trouble in the Beaver County Jail, where he is being held without bond, for spewing racial epithets and displaying racist messages written on his bed sheets.
Michael Waite, Beck's youth league football coach for six years, said Beck insulted and fought with minorities on the team.
Rebecca Durr, Beck's school bus driver, said, "He was constantly in trouble."
She said Beck was suspended from the bus six or seven times, but "I could have written him up every day of the week."
Durr said some students complained to the principal about Beck. After he was finally kicked off the bus for good because of the shotgun shells, some students who had quit riding returned.
Durr said Beck spoke of his admiration for the Washington, D.C., snipers, an admiration Martone said waned when Beck learned they were black.
"I'm afraid of him," Durr said.
Beck is being represented by a pair of high-profile attorneys -- James Ecker and Tom Ceraso.
