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Of 3 who are tried, 2 boys found guilty
©Associated Press PENSACOLA -- A jury convicted 13- and 14-year-old brothers Friday of murdering their sleeping father with a baseball bat and then setting fire to their home in hopes of covering up the crime. A short time later, a second jury in the unusual case acquitted a 40-year-old family friend, Ricky Chavis, of the slaying. Prosecutors had argued at his trial that he wielded the bat, then argued at the boys' trial that they struck the fatal blows to escape their controlling father. The judge initially sealed the Chavis verdict, reached last week, but he later disclosed the acquittal to the prosecutor and defense lawyers and ordered them not to divulge it pending the outcome of the boys' trial. According to a transcript released Friday after the verdicts were read, Judge Frank Bell said he was concerned about having to impose mandatory life terms on Chavis and the brothers when "in my mind, I know that one of them is not guilty." The transcript was from a closed door meeting with the attorneys last month. As the verdict was read in court Friday, the older brother, Derek King, bowed his head while Alex King wiped away tears as his attorney draped an arm around his shoulders. Their mother, Kelly Marino, wept softly in the courtroom gallery behind them. She had moved to Lexington, Ky., about three years before the killing. The boys' attorneys said they would appeal but declined further comment. Their relatives said they were distraught. "Alex was devastated and so was Derek," said Greg King, their uncle and the victim's brother. He said he believed the boys were innocent. The boys were tried as adults on charges of first-degree murder. The jury, however, convicted them of second-degree murder, which carries a penalty of 22 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The boys were also convicted of arson for setting fire to the home after bludgeoning Terry King, 40. Sentencing was set for Oct. 17. Chavis was acquitted of first-degree murder and arson after a trial in which the boys' taped confessions to sheriff's deputies were played for jurors. The brutal crime, the ages of the two boys and the odd prosecution strategy riveted much of Florida. Legal experts had questioned the decision to try the boys and Chavis before separate juries for the same crime, and prosecutor David Rimmer had conceded his case against Chavis was weak. But Rimmer said he felt he had no choice but to prosecute Chavis and went ahead after consulting his boss. "If I had not brought first-degree murder charges against Chavis . . . what do you think people would be saying now?" Rimmer said Friday. The boys' lawyers accused prosecutors of misconduct and said the case violated their constitutional rights. The judge said divulging the acquittal erased his worries about guilty verdicts in both cases creating "a totally unfair situation," according to the transcript. Rimmer argued the boys wanted to leave their father and live with Chavis, a convicted child molester who allowed them to play video games, stay up late watching television and smoke marijuana when they went to his house after running away 10 days before the killing. The boys confessed the day after the Nov. 26 slaying, but recanted months later and pinned the crime on Chavis, even testifying against him. Soft-spoken Alex said the boys initially took the blame because Chavis had told them they would be exonerated because they are juveniles. Defense lawyers said the boys confessed to protect Chavis and were coached by him on what to say, including gory details such as being able to see their father's brain through a hole in his head and the raspy sound of his last gasps. The boys' attorneys also argued that Chavis had motive because he wanted to keep Terry King from finding out he was having sex with Alex. Rimmer contended the boys' confessions included details only the killers would have known. "The jury did the right thing and I'm proud of them," he said. "If (jurors) had believed the boys were telling the truth in court, they would have found Chavis guilty." At Chavis' trial, Rimmer put the boys on the witness stand, where they said they hid in the trunk of his car while Chavis killed their father. The boys were 12 and 13 at the time. Rimmer, however, avoided asking the Chavis jury for a conviction, saying it was up to them to decide when the boys had lied -- when they told authorities they killed their father or when they told jurors Chavis was the killer. At the boys' trial, prosecutors said it was Derek who swung the bat while Alex urged him on. Defense lawyers asked Bell to acquit the boys because of the competing theories, but the judge refused. Christopher Slobogin, a University of Florida law professor, said prosecutors should have decided who they thought was guilty and taken that case to trial. However, he said there would have been nothing unconstitutional about having contradictory verdicts, and they could have been upheld on appeal. "We've got two validly selected juries, and we have two trials that were conducted according to legitimate procedures, and we have two juries finding beyond a reasonable doubt about the guilt of the defendants," he said. Prosecutors have said they plan to try Chavis on a charge of molesting Alex and, if he was acquitted of murder, as an accessory to the slaying. Chavis has said he picked up the boys shortly after the slaying, washed blood from their clothes and kept them for a day before turning them over to authorities.
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From the Times state desk Lucy Morgan
From the state wire
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