16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder of NYC Newsman

March 25, 2009

A 16-year old New York youth has confessed to the stabbing murder of a veteran New York City radio newscaster, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

The suspect is an avid video gamer who lists Rockstar's controversial Grand Theft Auto IV as his favorite title.

The NYPD has charged John Katehis (left) with repeatedly stabbing George Weber, 47, last Friday. The pair met after Weber posted a Craigslist ad offering to pay for violent sex. Katehis was to earn $60 for the sleazy encounter at which alcohol and cocaine were reportedly used. Weber, apparently as part of his sado-masochistic fantasy, supplied the knife with which Katehis eventually killed him.

That's not to say that Katehis was a stranger to edged weapons. The New York Daily News, which refers to Katehis as "emotionally disturbed," displays a picture of the teen posing with his exotic knife and sword collection.

Gawker has posted Katehis's MySpace profile, in which says the suspect wrotes:

I enjoy long conversations, drinking, bike riding, hanging out, roof hopping, hanging off trains, any type of Parkour exercise. Extreme violence (chaos, anarchy, etc.) Video Games, Violent Movies and listening to my ipod...

 

I like to do crazy and wild things. I am like an adrenaline junkie. I'm a big risk taker and like to live life on the edge...

The MySpace profile references an account on ibeatyou.com. At that site, Katehis lists Grand Theft Auto IV as the "Hottest PS3 or Xbox 360 Game You've Ever Played" and includes a picture of himself holding a copy of the PlayStation 3 version. Katehis holds up Far Cry 2 in a separate photo.

Additional coverage: Gawker

GP: There are just so many dysfunctional pieces to this story, but video games will certainly be blamed in some quarters.


Comments

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder ...

 

I don't GTA4 is really a "game of the year" material.  But I did like it because of the missions, characters, story, and the gameplay.

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder ...

agreed..

tbh i found the story utterly boring compared to GTa's more 'fun, less serious' iterations.

I think my main problem was that the story kept on justifying Nikos actions by making him say 'Ah well, i need the money'. Apart from the fact that my character Niko had hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Hell in the story, after the taxi office gets hit him n roman say 'Dammit we have no money and nowhere to live' in the cutscene. I was like... uhh.. i have over 100,000 dollars and nothing to spend it on.. what are you talking about.

I dunno.. i just feel that the story and gameplay should compliment one another. All the story did was remind me that my actions in the game had no effect, breaking my immersion, and reminding me that i couldnt relate to Nikos story since it was forced upon me.

Same with the date. The one girl that you can date that actually plays a large part in the story, your MEANT to have an emotional attachement to when 'stuff' happens to her (trying not to drop spoilers). However i didnt optionally date her ONCE. i HATED her. yet for some reason the story version of niko loved her. UGH. shoehorning story in the way of gameplay doesnt work.

Plus later on the story just got.. meh.. boring. Only gta i havent completed.

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder ...

I agree too.  GTA: Vice City was much more fun.

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder ...

I woulden't say GTA 4 is the greatest game ever, but it's certainly up there. Then agian i'm a pertentious prick that looks at the "artsy" side of video games.

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder of

Yes, they both enjoyed violent sex, Katehis was a violent and disturbed person who enjoyed violence in general, and alcohol and cocaine were reportedly used, but it doesn't matter!

It was GTA IV that made him do it.

 

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"We received 20 calls last night. As we all know, one call equals a billion people. So 20 billion people called us last night. We must act to preserve decency on television." -The FCC

"This is not the difficult thing, gentlemen, to escape death, but it is far more difficult to escape evil, for it runs faster than death." -Socrates

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder ...

''Extreme violence (chaos, anarchy, etc.) Video Games, Violent Movies and listening to my ipod... ''

 

whaddya know a violent person likes violent video games.

Shock horror.

Why do critics try and turn it the other way around (a player of violent games becomes violent).

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder ...

THE IPOD! That's what made him do it! If he hadn't listened to his iPod, he would have been the picture of pacifism!

Drinking, cocaine, mental issues. Is anyone going to care? No. It was all GTA's fault, as usual. 

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder ...

Wait a second was it an IPOD shuffle or an IPOD nano...There's a big difference in the level of violence that the systems can cause...

Re: 16-Year Old GTA IV Gamer Charged with Grisly S&M Murder ...

Indeed...

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http://www.thesupersoldiers.com

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PHX Corphttp://kotaku.com/ea-sports-developer-calls-wii-u-crap-and-nintendo-wa-508481261 EA Sports Canada Moron calls Wii U 'Crap' and Nintendo 'Walking Dead'05/18/2013 - 11:42am
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