N.Y. Man Says His Son Killed Jogger For Thrills

ROCKY POINT, N.Y. (August 14, 1997 4:22 p.m. EDT) -- A man turned in his 21-year-old son for the fatal shooting of an off-duty New York firefighter in what the father described as a thrill killing inspired by violent movies.

William Sodders was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder for the January shooting of 30-year-old James Halversen, police said Thursday.

Patrick Sodders said he felt he had to turn in his son because the young man had recently threatened to kill him, his girlfriend, their young daughter and the girlfriend's family.

"There was no choice, because he killed a man, and I was concerned he could possibly do it again," Sodders said.

Halversen's body was found by his pregnant wife, Rosalie, after he failed to return home from an evening jog on the Centereach High School track.

A month after Halversen's death, his wife gave birth to twin girls. The couple also had a 4-year-old daughter.

"I lost my best friend and my husband, and my children lost their father," Mrs. Halversen told reporters Wednesday. "It's senseless and there's no reason."

In an interview in Thursday's New York Post, Patrick Sodders said his son dreamed of acting out the violence depicted in his favorite film, "Natural Born Killers," and other such films.

"He's been acting out the part of psychotic killers," the father said. "It's a game he played with everyone."

Police said William Sodders, a resident of the Long Island town of Centereach, pretended he was tying his shoe as Halversen jogged. When Halversen got close, police said, Sodders jumped up and shot him point blank in the chest and leg with a stolen 9mm handgun, which was recovered. The attacker fled in a car with two companions.

The alleged driver of the getaway vehicle, Eric Calvin, 19, also was arrested and charged with criminal facilitation. The third person in the car was not charged.

Police spokesman Robert Boden called the killing, "a complete, random senseless act. They didn't know each other and there was no connection."

Homicide Detective Sgt. Ed Light said Sodders opened fire to test the gun.

Sodders' father told the Post he called police Tuesday night, after learning that day his son may have shot Halversen.

William Sodders' brother Brian told reporters outside the family's small wood-frame house in Rocky Point Thursday that his father was not home. "We have nothing to say," the brother said.