The parents of a boy targeted in a murder plot from his classmates spoke out about the incident and answered some questions about the shocking case.
Police have not released many details about the four fifth graders who were arrested over a plot to stab their victim and make it look like a suicide, as previously reported by Blaze News.
‘He’s like, well, you know, “They wanted to kill me, but I’m not dead.” Like, literally, that’s how he acts now.’
The victim’s mother, Brittany Mudd, and his stepfather, Nick Bernardi, told KTVK-TV that they wanted to dispel some of the rumors that were floating around online about the incident.
The couple said their son was only 10 years old when the plot was discovered by children he had considered his best friends at the West Surprise campus of Legacy Traditional Schools in October. He is also autistic, which had not been previously reported.
“It was literally his friends at school tried to murder him,” Bernardi said.
While the police report said the murder was planned because of a breakup involving the boy, the couple denies that explanation for the motivation.
“It wasn’t a love triangle. It was just a bunch of kids that would hang out in the playground,” Bernardi said.
“But it doesn’t really matter why. There’s literally no reason or anything that a little kid could do for that to be what you choose to do,” Mudd added.
They said they were shocked at the amount of planning that was undertaken in the plot. Police said one of the children was told to act as a lookout, another would forge a suicide note, a third would commit the stabbing, and a fourth would provide the knife.
“Maybe it’s different now, but when I was 10 years old, we did not know about covering our tracks, fingerprints and police investigations, crime scenes. Like, that is not something that you’re supposed to know at 10,” Bernardi said.
“What movie did you just watch? What shows are you watching?” Mudd asked.
The couple worries that one of the four children was reportedly unapologetic and expressed no remorse after getting caught. The girl was said to be laughing while making excuses for the plot.
“That’s psychotic behavior,” Mudd said.
“There was a mastermind to this, and what is going to happen to stop this child from potentially being a real offender, doing it again? Being kicked out of school, that really doesn’t change much because that doesn’t fix your behavior,” Bernardi said.
A notice from the court to the couple said that all four students involved were ordered to participate in a juvenile diversion program. They were also supposed to write an apology letter, but so far that has not happened.
“It’s closure, right? I mean, the courts are done, but the lives that were impacted are just left out to float away and just deal with it,” Bernardi said.
They also discussed the effect the entire incident had on their boy.
“He’s like, well, you know, ‘They wanted to kill me, but I’m not dead.’ Like, literally, that’s how he acts now. And it’s just like, that’s a normal part of his life now, you know?” Bernardi said. “And it kills us every time we hear it because, like, what do we say?”
“He was vulnerable with these kids and thought they were his friends, and look what happened. So, now I think part of him is a little afraid to have more friends like that again,” Mudd added.
They said the boy has been moved to another school in the Legacy Traditional Schools system.
A statement from a Legacy Traditional Schools spokesperson said they reacted in accordance with district protocols but said they could not discuss the case because of privacy laws.
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