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Florida Judge Throws Out Teen Brothers’ Conviction
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Friday, October 18, 2002
PENSACOLA, Fla. (REUTERS) — A Florida judge threw out the second-degree murder convictions Thursday of two teenage brothers found guilty in the death of their father, who was killed with a baseball bat while he slept.
Escambia County Circuit Court judge Frank Bell ruled that the boys, Derek King, 14, and Alex King, 13, had not received due process or a fair trial, a court official said.
Bell ordered the prosecution and defense to try to settle the case through a court-appointed mediator or, if that failed, go to a fresh trial. The prosecution would have a third option, which would be to appeal his ruling within 30 days. The boys had been due to be sentenced Thursday.
The King brothers were charged as adults with first-degree murder and arson in the Nov. 26 killing of their father, Terry King, at their home in Cantonment, a small town just north of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.
The boys were found guilty six weeks ago in the case. Their second-degree murder conviction carried a possible sentence of 20 years to life, with the possibility of parole.
In the same case, a family friend, Ricky Chavis, was found not guilty of murder and arson in a verdict read shortly after the boys were convicted. Chavis, 40, was tried separately for the murder a week before the boys’ trial, but the verdict was sealed until the boys’ trial was over to avoid influencing their jury.
The case drew national attention because of the brutal nature of the crime, the boys’ ages and the alleged involvement of their neighbor Chavis, a convicted child molester with whom Alex King said he had a sexual relationship.
Chavis still faces charges of lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 16.
Alex and Derek King initially confessed to the crime, offering details that no one who had not been at the crime scene could offer, prosecutors said.
But defense attorneys argued that the confessions, which the boys later recanted, were Chavis’ version of the crime. The boys initially tried to cover for Chavis because Chavis persuaded them they could claim self-defense and could live with him when they were acquitted, their lawyers said.
Terry King, 40, said by relatives and neighbors to have been a strict disciplinarian, was beaten to death as he slept.
Anonymous (February 28, 2005 @ 2:42pm):
I used to live in cantonment i am now 13 years old and one of my best friends Jason Gaylard testified and told how he heard derek talking about killing his father i think the boys did get a fair trial because they beat their dad with a baseball bat and killed him they should be punished severely.
