Jury told to put aside sympathy for boys

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- A prosecutor urged jurors Thursday to put aside any sympathy for two boys because of their ages, then 12 and 13, when deciding whether they beat their father to death with a baseball bat last year.

The jury will begin deliberating Friday whether Alex and Derek King, now 13 and 14, are guilty of first-degree murder, a verdict that would send them to prison for the rest of their lives.

Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer also asked jurors in his closing argument to guard against being swayed by anger with convicted child molester Ricky Chavis, who also was charged with the murder.

Firefighters found the body of Terry King, 40, on a recliner inside his burning home in nearby Cantonment.

The brothers have repudiated confessions they gave police a day after the murder. They now say Chavis is the real killer. Alex also testified he once loved Chavis, 40, and repeatedly had sex with him.

Rimmer, however, argued the boys were telling the truth when they admitted the killing to Escambia County sheriff's investigators. He said their confessions are filled with the kind of detail only someone who was there would have known.

Defense lawyers contended the boys confessed to protect Chavis and parroted what he had coached them to say. That included such gory details as being able to see the victim's brain through a hole in his head and the raspy sound of his last gasps.

"Everyone in this courtroom can repeat those details," said James Stokes, Alex's lawyer. "The boys' stories line up because the boys' stories are rehearsed."

The boys changed their stories more than four months after the murder, telling a grand jury that Chavis killed their father while they hid in the trunk of Chavis' car.

The grand jury then indicted Chavis, who was tried last week. His verdict has been sealed until after the King brothers' trial ends.

In the boys' case, Rimmer argued Derek swung the aluminum bat while Alex urged him to commit the killing, just as the brothers had originally confessed.

All three defendants are facing a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. Each also is charged with arson.

Earlier Thursday, Derek took the witness stand only to tell Circuit Judge Frank Bell he would not testify in his own defense.

"Yes sir, it was my decision," Derek said in a clear, strong voice.

His soft-spoken brother testified Wednesday that the brothers took the blame because they wanted to live with Chavis and he had told them they would be exonerated by claiming self-defense because they are juveniles. Both boys testified against Chavis last week.

Sharon Potter, one of Derek's lawyers, said in her closing that the boys had no motive to kill their father but Chavis did. She said he wanted to keep Terry King from finding out he was having sex with Alex.

Rimmer argued the boys' motive was to escape from a controlling father and live with Chavis. He let them play video games, stay up late watching television and smoke marijuana when they went to his house after running away from home 10 days before the killing, Rimmer said.

He also pointed to Alex's affection for Chavis, reading from several love letters he had written including one that ended "Before I met Rick I was straight but now I am gay."