RIVERSIDE, CALIF.—A California judge has ruled that a 13-year-old boy who was 10 when he killed his neo-Nazi father will spend at least the next seven years in a juvenile facility.

Judge Jean Leonard ruled Thursday that the maximum the boy can serve would be until he is 23. He’ll be eligible for parole in seven years.

Jeffrey Hall, 32, was shot at point-blank range as he slept on the sofa of his home on May 1, 2011.

The child took a .357-Magnum from his parents’ bedroom and later told police he was afraid he would have to choose between living with his father or stepmother, who had been fighting and were headed for a divorce.

Hall was regional leader of the National Socialist Movement and defence lawyers argued the boy was raised in an abusive household.

The judge found second-degree murder allegations true in January. The Associated Press is not naming the boy because of his age.

On Wednesday, a prosecutor argued the boy should be sent to a juvenile detention centre to protect him and the public, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.

He would be the youngest person in the lock-up, and prosecutors acknowledged he probably would be placed with some of the most violent offenders.

Defence attorneys, however, said the teen has serious emotional disabilities the state wasn’t equipped to handle. They argued he should go to a treatment centre that could meet his needs for special education and more intensive therapy, with a goal of someday allowing him back into the world.