Dustin Lynch



Dustin Lynch (born 1987) is a criminal from Ohio who sparked controversy over the video game Grand Theft Auto III when he committed one act of first degree murder, killing JoLynn Mishne on November 2, 2002. Lynch was to be represented by attorney Jack Thompson, claiming that he was 'obsessed' with GTA III. Lynch was fifteen at the time of the crime and sixteen by the time his case came to trial. Thompson, who had advised the Mishne family had wanted to represent Lynch but would, according to Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman, be faced with deeply conflicting interests if he were to represent Dustin Lynch. Lynch himself eventually rejected Thompson’s offer, withdrawing his insanity plea. Lynch’s mother, Jerrilyn Thomas, who previously demanded that Judge Christopher Collier appoint Thompson to defend her son, said she changed her mind after visiting with her boy in jail, saying, “It has nothing to do with video games or Paxil, and my son’s no murderer". Lynch, withdrawing his insanity plea, said of the murder: "I killed JoLynn for my own personal satisfaction. I yearn to see blood, it's a need or an addiction and also a fetish. I'm just obsessed with it all." Lynch was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to between twenty years and life.