A Riverside County judge on Friday postponed until March 1 the sentencing of a 12-year-old boy found guilty of murder in the death of his neo-Nazi father, who was shot in the head as he slept on his living room couch.

Superior Court Judge Jean P. Leonard said she needed more information from the probation department about his mental health and to have an education assessment completed.

At sentencing, Leonard could send the boy to a juvenile detention facility run by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or to a less restrictive institution, such as a facility in Indio run by the Riverside County Department of Probation.

The judge in January found that the Riverside boy, who was 10 years old when he pulled the trigger, possessed the mental capacity to know that killing his father was wrong. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and of using a gun while committing a felony.

The youngster's father, Jeffrey Hall, was a West Coast leader for the neo-Nazi organization known as the National Socialist Movement. The judge said Hall's attempts to indoctrinate his son into the hate group corrupted the thought processes of a boy who already was disturbed and displaying violent tendencies.