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Lesser charges possible for grandfather accused of killing son-in-law
By Matt Bean
(Court TV) -- A Kansas jury is now mulling the fate of a man who killed his son-in-law last March, including a potential compromise verdict that could carry only a five-year stint in prison. The jury could convict Bobby Bruce White, 50, of voluntary manslaughter if the jury believes that he was defending his grandson when he gunned down 23-year-old Aaron Ruboyianes. White, 50, claimed on the stand that he believed Ruboyianes physically and sexually abused the young child. White and his wife had raised the boy, now 5, since birth. On March 27, 2002, White walked into the Augusta, Kansas, Wal-Mart where Ruboyianes worked and shot him three times before surrendering to police in the parking lot. Two days earlier, White and his wife lost guardianship of their grandson, Blaine, to their daughter, Belinda, who was not able to care for the child after she gave birth in 1998. If convicted of the most serious charge, first-degree murder, White could spend the rest of his life behind bars. On Tuesday morning, District Judge Mike Ward agreed to allow the jury to consider so-called "lesser included" options of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. White's defense centered on the alleged abuse of Blaine at the hands of Ruboyianes, who married Belinda in 1999 and took on the child as his stepson. White testified he found pornographic pictures of Ruboyianes and Blaine on a digital camera in November 2001 — but admitted he never told anyone about the images. White testified on the stand that he had no evidence — the images had been erased — and that he feared the child would be taken away from him if he told authorities about the pictures. White's attorney, Amber St. Clair, said her client was not a "cold-blooded, premeditated killer," but a "smart man" on "emotional autopilot" the day of the killing. "If he wanted to premeditate this and plan it out, it would have been [done] in a lot better fashion," St. Clair said. St. Clair's urged jurors in her half-hour closing argument to consider how Belinda and Aaron Ruboyianes treated Blaine. Their household was filthy and unfit for child-rearing, claimed the lawyer, and Aaron Ruboyianes would even give the child severe wedgies, amounting to a form of "genital strangulation." White testified on Friday that he had no recollection of killing Aaron Ruboyianes. In her closing argument, St. Clair likened his memory blackout to that of victims of September 11. "They can't remember things, they've lost days, weeks, hours," said St. Clair. The lawyer even cited lyrics from a Neil Diamond song, "I am, I said," to illustrate the alleged frustration White felt at the court system, which he said was ill-equipped to hear his complaints of sexual and physical abuse. Prosecutor Jan Satterfield focused on the elements necessary for a first-degree murder charge during her half-hour closing argument: Premeditation and intent. She swept aside the abuse claims leveled by St. Clair as diversions, saying White killed Ruboyianes on March 27 because he was frustrated at losing the custody battle two days earlier. "That's what he went to the Wal-Mart store for; That's what he drove 138 miles for that morning..." Satterfield said. "There was no justification. There was no provocation the time he killed Aaron Ruboyianes." Four eyewitnesses to the crime testified they saw White shoot Ruboyianes at near point-blank range, with the final blast, according to one, coming as a "finishing shot." "Bob White is guilty of murder," Satterfield said. "There's no question."
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