Neighbor says accused teen murderer may have been suicidal

Scott Sonner

Thursday, June 4, 1998 | 9:16 a.m.

BATTLE MOUNTAIN, Nev. - One of the 15-year-old suspects in a triple murder here appeared to be suicidal over the past several months, according to a neighbor who says he tried to provide the boy refuge from an abusive home life.

Colby Becker didn't kill himself but he and his eight-grade classmate, Kyle Ray, were being held in the Lander County Jail today accused of first-degree murder in the triple shooting last weekend of Ray's parents and sister.

"I was shocked," neighbor Keith Stevens said when he heard the news.

"I would never ever dream either one of those boys would do something like that," he said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.

"But I had thought about suicide. I thought from day one this is a boy who is ready to end his life," he said.

The two boys are good friends with Stevens' 14-year-old daughter. Stevens said both boys had a history of running away from home. He said they spent much of their time at the Stevens house, playing darts, jumping on the trampoline, watching videos.

Stevens said he saw signs of psychological abuse on the part of Ray and witnessed evidence of physical abuse to Becker.

"Last year (Becker) spent most of his time over at our place. I would take him home at 10 o'clock or midnight and nobody would be there. Several times I had to leave him there to an empty house," he said.

"When he first started coming around, he was shy and seemed afraid he'd get in trouble for anythying. He kept his head down and seemed to be afraid of any male figure."

Stevens said he repeated to the boys about two weeks ago that he was willing to help them out if they had troubles at home.

"The last time I talked to Colby and Kyle, they were all stressed out and didn't want to go home. I told them if you have any problems whatsoever, please come and talk to me and maybe we can work something out," he said.

"And they didn't come and talk."

The formal criminal complaint filed Tuesday accused the boys of plotting the murders of Ray's parents, James, 42, and Kimberly, 37, and his sister, Jennifer, 12.

It said Becker shot Mr. Ray with a Remington .22-caliber rifle and Kyle Ray shot his mother and his sister with the same weapon. Both face the same three charges of murder and conspiracy.

"There was an agreement," District Attorney Will Mattly said in explaining the conspiracy charge. "The charge is premeditated and deliberated."

Lander County Public Defender Hy Forgeron, representing Becker, said his client would plead innocent. He would not say whether Becker was present at the time of the shooting.

"It's too soon to say exactly what took place. The information I have is he didn't kill anyone. Whether he was there or not may be irrelevant," Forgeron said.

Stevens and his wife, Aurora Stevens, have spoken out on behalf of the boys in the face of commuinity outrage over the killings. They said their daughter was suspended from the junior high this week after she clashed with a teacher condemning the murder suspects.

"Everybody is saying how terrible these kids are. They haven't seen the real Colby or the real Kyle," Stevens said.

"These boys may have cried out for help when they were running away over and over in the middle of the night. But believe me, these kids aren't the murdering type. Something flared up. It is going to take some very, very good psychiatrists to figure it out."