Boy Suspected Of Fatally Shooting Father To Remain Detained

HOUSTON -- A 10-year-old Harris County boy suspected of -- but not charged with -- fatally shooting his father will remain in juvenile custody, a judge ruled Monday during a closed-court hearing in Houston.

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Relatives, Attorneys Speak Out About Father's Killing Detention Hearing Set For Boy Thought To Have Shot Father

Bill Hawkins with the Harris County District Attorney's Juvenile Division said officials need time to collect investigative reports on the shooting, autopsy information and details on the child. Another hearing was scheduled for Sept. 13.

Hawkins said it's uncertain whether the boy would be charged in the death of 41-year-old physician Rick Lohstroh.

"There is all kinds of stuff we will look at before any charging decision will be made," he said. "The only thing I can confirm ... is because of his age, he won't be certified (as an adult). He's not eligible for certification so he will remain in the juvenile system."

The hearing was closed to the public and the media -- only his mother and paternal grandparents were allowed in the courtroom.

"I am very concerned. I love my son very much," the 10-year-old boy's mother, Deborah Geisler, said after the hearing. "He appears to be doing OK. He is eating, exercising, and is following the rules."

Geisler, through her attorney, reported her ex-husband repeatedly sexually abused the boy.

"I firmly believe that this young man was the victim of physical and sexual abuse, and that is something we are going to be investigating very, very seriously," Geisler's attorney said.

Lohstroh's divorce attorney, Kathleen Collins, said there is no evidence of abuse.

"There was a thorough investigation by two police departments," Collins told Local 2.

She said the allegations were leveled in the spring of 2002 during the couple's contentious divorce hearing. No charges were ever filed and both parents were awarded custody of their 10-year-old son and his 7-year-old brother.

"I think there are lots of questions. How did the child get the gun? I don't think the child pulled the trigger by himself," Collins said.

Juvenile division officials said the boy could face a murder charge. If he were convicted, he would be placed in the care of the Texas Youth Commission until his 18th birthday. He would then be transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, where he could serve up to 40 years in prison.

Police arrived at Geisler's home Friday to find Lohstroh dead inside his vehicle. The couple last year had finalized a rocky divorce but remained volatile, Collins said.

Lohstroh, who worked as an emergency room doctor in Galveston, had come to pick up his two children. According to a Harris County Sheriff's Department report, the oldest child retrieved a gun from his mother's bedroom, climbed into the back seat and began firing "through the back of the driver's seat striking his father."

"He then exited the vehicle and fired more times, striking his father's vehicle as well as a neighbor's car parked near the victim's vehicle," Sgt. B.E. Williams said in a statement. "He then returned to the house where the mother took the weapon from him and called 911."

Geisler did not immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press on Monday.

She told the Houston Chronicle in Sunday's editions the boy "was very angry with his father." She told the paper she did not know how the child got the gun, which she said she kept locked and unloaded in her home in Katy.

The couple married in San Antonio in 1988. They divorced last year, with Lohstroh receiving their $355,000 home in Friendswood, about 25 miles south of Houston. They also agreed to joint custody, with the children spending a week with each parent, Collins said.

Lohstroh met Geisler in college and the couple married during Lohstroh's first year of medical school at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, said a close friend, Dr. Sumit Guha.

Divorce Attorney, Victim's Colleague Saw Warning Signs

Collins said the father did everything he could for his children.

"The children were real happy with their father. They loved their father and Rick loved them," Collins said of Lohstroh. "(The father) was just getting his life together after this devastating divorce process," Collins said. "He didn't deserve this. Nobody does."

Collins said she had urged Lohstroh to get a police escort when picking up the children given the situation seemed more escalated.

"Life was not easy for him. It settled down for a brief period of time, but not for a whole lot," said Guha. "I have been in tears the last 48 hours," he said of his medical school classmate, who he reunited with about four years ago. "All of his friends are calling me and asking me about him."

The disputes also were taking their toll on the children, he said.

"I could tell they were troubled," Guha said. "They were torn between both parents."

During the divorce, Geisler alleged Lohstroh had abused the children, Collins said. Lohstroh was kept from his children for four months but cleared of the allegations, she said.

"It takes a lot to still stand strong after a person makes false allegations against you time and time and time and time again. "He was vindicated at every turn," Collins said. "I have my own ideas about what happened, but I think the police department ... can do a good job of investigating this case and find out what really happened."

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August, 27, 2004: Constables: Boy, 10, Shoots Father To Death