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.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"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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Papa Midnight
http://www.thesupersoldiers.com

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Papa Midnight

 
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TechnogeekIf the developer were male there wouldn't have been a "conversation" in the first place.10/19/2014 - 2:27am
Montetrolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm
MontePapa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm
Papa MidnightMonte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm
AvalongodI think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm
Avalongod@Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm
WonderkarpZippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm
MonteSeirously, If Quinn was not involved and GG was instead about something like the Mordor Marketing contracts, the trolling would have never grown so vile and disgusting. There have been plenty of movements in the past that never sufferred from behavior..10/18/2014 - 1:57pm
MonteWe have seen scandel's before but the trolling has never been as vile as what we see with GG. Trolls usually have such a tiny voice you can barely notice them, but its like moths to a flame whenever femistist are involved.10/18/2014 - 1:53pm
ZippyDSMleeWonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm
MaskedPixelantehttp://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm
Matthew Wilsonthe sad thing is there are trolls on both sides of this. people need to stop acting like their side is so pure.10/18/2014 - 12:19pm
MechaTama31So, only speak out on a scandal that hasn't attracted trolls? I wouldn't hold my breath...10/18/2014 - 10:49am
MonteI feel like GG just needs to die. The movement is FAR to tainted by hatred and BS for it to be useful for any conversation. Let GG die, and then rally behind the NEXT gaming journalism scandal, and start the conversation fresh.10/18/2014 - 10:33am
quiknkoldand we dont have a Dovakin to call a cease fire10/17/2014 - 7:37pm
quiknkoldThe whole thing is Futile. Both sides are so buried deep in their trenchs that there isnt a conversation. Its just Finger Pointing, Name Calling, Doxxing, Threats. there needs to be a serious conversation, and GG isnt it.10/17/2014 - 7:37pm
quiknkoldI thought it was a good article. Jeff is right. I feel like GamerGate did destroy its message. I am for Ethics in game journalism, but man. so much hate. and its on both sides. I've seen some awful stuff spewed on twitter. Its a big reason why I exited..10/17/2014 - 7:34pm
Matthew Wilsonwhile he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm
Papa MidnightThat was a damn good read offered by Jeff Gertsmann.10/17/2014 - 7:17pm
Matthew Wilsonhttp://www.giantbomb.com/articles/letter-from-the-editor-10-17-2014/1100-5049/ deferentially a nice write up.10/17/2014 - 6:44pm
 

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