Ohio Boy, 16, Convicted in Killing of Man He Met for Sex

A 16-year-old buy in Elyria, Ohio has been convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of a 55-year-old man. Daniel Kovarbasich, who was tried as an adult, was found guilty on April 29. The coroner said he had stabbed Duane Hurley 55 times and struck him several times in the head with pickle jar.

Elyria is a city in the heart of the rust belt, west of Cleveland. The youth admitted during his trial that he had lied initially about what occurred. Kovarbasich had changed his story several times, saying at one point that he did not remember what happened, and at another point that Hurley had tried to attack him with a knife.

But by the end of the trial, Kovarbasich said that he had been sexually abused since he was 15 by Hurley, and that as rewards the older man would provide him with perks, such as allowing him to drive Hurley's Corvette. On the day of the killing, Kovarbasich said, Hurley was expecting to have sex with the youth in exchange for $80. Kovarbasich had made plans for how to spend the money--by taking his girlfriend out to celebrate their anniversary.

The case carried echoes of last year's killing of New York newsman George Weber, who had engaged the services of a 16-year-old heterosexual and bladed weapons enthusiast John Katehis for rough sex. Katehis stabbed Weber more than 50 times while Weber was bound with duct tape. Katehis, too, claimed that he was acting in self-defense, and said at one point that Weber had threatened him with a knife before Katehis took the weapon away and turned it on the newsman. Weber hired Katehis online and they did not have a prior relationship.

The claim of ongoing sexual abuse also made the case reminiscent of a killing last year in Fort Bragg, California, when Aaron Vargas, 32, gunned down an older man, 63-year-old Darrell McNeill. Vargas said that McNeill has abused him for years, from the time he was 11 into his 20s, and that even after the abuse ended, McNeill continued to plague him. The local townsfolk, including McNeill's widow, supported Vargas.

Sexual abusers can seem trustworthy; in the case of Aaron Vargas' abuser, and in the case of Duane Hurley, the men seemed outwardly respectable. But alone with their purported victims, the men reportedly became much different. Kovarbasich said that though Hurley charmed the youth's parents and became a close family friend, he had no compunctions about naming his price, in sexual favors, for things that Kovarbasich wanted. Kovarbasich told the court that, "It was always something I wanted or he did, like if he bought me clothes or if I maybe wanted to drive the car. But when it came to oral sex, it was for the Corvette. I wanted to drive the Corvette and he said, 'Well, you know what that means, you know, bigger toys, bigger things.' "

In the case of the sexual encounter Kovarbasich said Hurley was expecting on the day of the killing, there was to be a payoff of $80, as well as Hurley engaging the services of a tutor to help Kovarbasich with his schoolwork. But while Hurley was lying on his bed and Kovarbasich was using Hurley's computer, the defendant told the court, he snapped: "I just seen the pickle jar and I just picked it up and slammed it in the back of his head." Kovarbasich said that he then stabbed Hurley with his pocketknife before going to the kitchen, getting a bigger knife, and coming back with it. Coming from the kitchen, he met Hurley in the hallway, punched him, stabbed, him, and then kicked at Hurley's head after the older man fell to the floor.

The article said that Hurley's computer contained photos of Kovarbasich, but that they were nonsexual; however, the computer also contained what the report called "thousands of pornographic images and videos," many of them with young adolescent males.