Extracted from The News-Star (Monroe, LA)
Thursday, July 16, 1959

Boy Kills Parent In ‘Self Defense’

LAUREL, Miss. (UPI) -- Police said today 11-year-old Marion Sheffield was protecting his mother Wednesday night when he shot and killed his step-father.

W. L. Walsworth, a 45 year-old truck driver, was shot to death in the family's apartment and a coroner's jury ruled young Sheffield shot him “in defense of his mother's life and his own life.”

Mrs. Walsworth told officers her husband was intoxicated and was beating her in their bedroom. She said the noise must have awakened her son who came into the room carrying a shotgun and told Walsworth to stop choking her. She said the boy fired when Walsworth attempted to take the gun.