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Joseph Hall was 10 years old when he shot his sleeping father in the head in 2011. Now 12, he could be held in state custody until age 23.

Because Joseph was so young at the time of the murder, the case hinged on whether he understood that shooting his father, Jeffrey Hall, 32, was wrong at the time. The judge, Jean P. Leonard, of Riverside County Superior Court, noted that after the shooting, Joseph put the gun under his bed, and he did not cry when the police arrived, even as other family members were sobbing.

"These actions show the court that he knew his actions were wrong and did not want to get caught," Judge Leonard said in court Monday. "The killing was not spontaneous but planned."

The trial, which began in October but was delayed for months and only resumed last week, offered a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of a neo-Nazi's son.

Joseph had been violent almost his entire life, according to testimony, beginning before his father joined the National Socialist Movement. He hit his sisters and his stepmother, stabbed classmates at school with pencils and once tried to strangle a teacher with a telephone cord. As a result, he was expelled from at least half a dozen schools.

"He was very impulsive and very violent towards the other children and teachers," his stepmother, Krista McCary, testified during the trial. "Hitting, kicking, biting, scratching, stabbing with sharp objects, hitting with objects."

Mr. Hall also beat Joseph regularly for years before the murder, the judge noted on Monday. The prosecutor, Michael Soccio, said he hoped the court would get Joseph help.

"Joseph is a little boy, and his life has been very, very sad," Mr. Soccio said after the ruling Monday. But he added that he would have been concerned had the judge ordered Joseph's release "He's a very dangerous boy," Mr. Soccio said.

Matthew J. Hardy, the public defender representing Joseph, said he planned to appeal. He said there was "no basis" to find that Joseph knew his actions were wrong.