Tuesday, June 2, 1998 | 12:02 p.m.
The suspect, Kyle Clayton Ray, and his friend, Colby Allen Becker, 15, were scheduled to be formally charged today each on three counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Authorities have revealed no information about a possible motive or what the boys have said since the pair were arrested in Ray's family car shortly after the triple shooting at Ray's home Saturday night.
The boys allegedly used a .22-caliber rifle to shoot Ray's parents, James, 42 and Kimberly, 37, and his 12-year-old sister, Jennifer.
The father of the friend of the two suspects offered the first glimpse of a possible motive when he told KOLO-TV of Reno that Kyle Ray was under intense psychological abuse from his parents.
Keith Stevens said he tried to make his home a refuge for both boys.
"Last time I talked to him (Ray), I went ahead and told him if he had any problems to go ahead and come and talk to me so we could go ahead and do something for him," Stevens said.
Stevens did not elaborate, and could not be reached immediately for additional comment today. Sheriff's officials had no comment on his statement.
Investigators have also refused any comment on the crime scene at the Ray home five miles northeast of Battle Mountain.
"It's taken everybody by shock," said Shannon Ogden, a clerk at the local Miners Inn. "It's not safe anywhere, it seems."
Many of the eighth graders at Battle Mountain Junior High had the same question.
"Why?" principal Steve Larsgaard said.
"That's a hard thing to answer. We don't know why," he said he told the children on Monday.
Becker "was the nicest person, got along with everybody," said classmate Ryan Scherer. "He just didn't seem like the kind of person who would go and kill somebody."
Arthur Clark, a special education teacher at Battle Mountain High School whose son was shot and killed in Reno on Feb. 8, said the shootings were "like a slap in the face" for him.
"You come to live in a place like this and you hope you can avoid these kinds of tragedies," he said. "But it's just everywhere. I don't know what the answer is."
Clark's son, Branson, 20, a University of Nevada, Reno cheerleader during the 1996-97 school year, was killed while working as a food deliveryman.
Becker and Ray are too young for the death penalty, but, if convicted, could be sentenced to life in prison without parole, District Attorney Will Mattly said.
"They will be charged as adults," he told The Associated Press on Monday.
Neither youth has a criminal record nor any history of trouble in school, authorities said. Both were scheduled to graduate from junior high school this week.
Max Bunch, a justice of the peace, ordered the two suspects each held on $300,000 bond during a probable cause hearing Monday in Battle Mountain Justice Court.
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