State: Jury begins sorting facts in the case of slain father

PENSACOLA -- Jurors heard closing arguments Thursday and will begin deliberating today in the trial of the adult co-defendant of two teens charged in the killing of the boys' father.

The defense for Ricky Chavis, 40, produced a mound of evidence against brothers Alex and Derek King, now 13 and 14, that the prosecution will turn against them when they are tried as adults before a second jury next week.

Chavis' verdict will be sealed until the brothers' trial is completed. The Pensacola mechanic and handyman -- and a convicted child molester -- was a friend of the victim, Terry King, 40.

Firefighters found Terry King's body on Nov. 26 inside his burning house in nearby Cantonment. He had been beaten to death with an aluminum baseball bat. The boys, then 12 and 13, confessed.

Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer acknowledged in a brief closing argument Thursday that the only evidence against Chavis was the boys' testimony repudiating the confessions they had made to authorities, their mother and others. The brothers had originally told investigators Chavis had nothing to do with the killing.

"We're here because the King boys lied," Rimmer told the jurors. "They either lied to the police or they lied to you."

Rimmer said it was up to the jury to decide, adding, "I don't have a dog in this fight." Rimmer also will prosecute the King brothers.

A grand jury indicted Chavis more than four months after the killing, after the boys changed their story and accused him of being the killer.

Chavis' attorney, Michael Rollo, asked jurors to recall testimony by Escambia County sheriff's investigators, who said they would have charged Chavis earlier but never found any evidence that he had committed the murder.

"No evidence. Zero. None. That's what they said," Rollo told the jury. "Who are you going to trust? Trust the officers. They got it right."

The King brothers and Chavis are facing prison terms of life without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. Each also is charged with arson.

In testimony earlier Thursday, Derek's former guardians said he spoke about killing his father two days before the murder.

Frank Lay, principal of Pace High School in neighboring Santa Rosa County, and his wife, Nancy, said Derek lived with them and their teenage son for seven years, until returning to his father on Oct. 1.

They next saw Derek, who had run away, on Nov. 24 when neighbors called to say he was visiting their daughter. Frank Lay said he took Derek to his house and waited for a sheriff's deputy to return him to his father.

Lay testified that Derek then told him Alex hated their father, a single parent, and had said "he'd like to see him dead."

"He said, "You can't send us back because my brother's going to kill him. We already have a plan,' " Nancy Lay testified.

The couple also said Derek was a habitual liar.

Frank Lay said Derek told him during a visit in jail that he had killed his father. He said he asked Derek if anyone else was involved, and the boy said no.

The boys' mother, Kelly Marino, of Lexington, Ky., told jurors Wednesday that Derek also confessed to her. Teresa Shumate, a family friend who was with Marino then, verified her testimony on Thursday. She said Derek told them he did it to protect Alex from their father.

In their confessions to investigators, Derek said he killed his father and Alex said it was his idea because the boys were afraid of being spanked for running away. Alex described the killing in gory detail investigators said could only have come from someone who had been there.

At Chavis' trial the boys repeated their grand jury testimony that Chavis killed their father while they hid in the trunk of his car. Alex also testified he once loved Chavis and had sex with him.

Rimmer suggested in his closing that Chavis had motive to kill Terry King to get Alex to himself.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk