2nd man allegedly killed by boy was a loving dad

[November 12, 2008]  PHOENIX (AP) -- A man allegedly shot to death by an 8-year-old boy closely followed his daughters' sporting events and texted loving messages to his family while he lived apart from them for a construction job, his wife said Tuesday.

Tanya Romans said her husband, Timothy, worked a construction job in St. Johns for about a year while his family lived 170 miles away in metropolitan Phoenix. She and their 18- and 19-year-old daughters lived in metro Phoenix to be closer to college.

"He loved my girls dearly," Tanya Romans said.

Timothy Romans had coached his daughters' baseball teams and was familiar with the coaches and players on their basketball teams.

He lived with at a co-worker's home in St. Johns during the week, but Tanya Romans said her husband returned on weekends and sent his love through calls and text messages regularly.

"I can't imagine myself being without my husband," Tanya Romans said. "He would always call me even though he worked far away."

She declined to discuss the investigation into her husband's death.

Romans, 39, and co-worker Vincent Romero, were killed last week at Romero's home, where Romans had rented a room.

Police said Romero's 8-year-old son planned and methodically carried out the killings, and confessed. Authorities wouldn't discuss specifics of the confession or his possible motive.

The third-grader has been charged as a juvenile with two counts of murder.

A gag order has been imposed on the boy's attorney and others involved in the case, but the attorney previously has claimed police questioned the child without representation from a parent or attorney and didn't advise him of his rights.

[Associated Press; By JACQUES BILLEAUD]

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