Boys' lawyers: Molester killed father

An adult friend of the victim is the real killer, say defense lawyers in opening statements.

©Associated Press
September 4, 2002

PENSACOLA -- Lawyers for two brothers charged with murdering their father said Tuesday the real killer was the younger boy's adult molester, who persuaded them to protect him by taking the blame.

In opening statements at the boys' murder trial, the defense attorneys also said the state lacks physical evidence, such as bloodstains, linking Alex and Derek King, then 12 and 13, to the Nov. 26 killing of Terry King, 40.

The boys, now 13 and 14, are being tried as adults.

Derek is accused of bashing in his father's skull with an aluminum baseball bat and Alex is charged with putting his brother up to it, Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer said in his opening.

Rimmer last week prosecuted Ricky Chavis, 40, a friend of the victim and a convicted child molester, for the same crime before a different jury. His verdict was returned Friday but will remain sealed until the King brothers' trial is over.

"You will hear that Derek King had no motive to kill his father, but Ricky Chavis did," said Sharon Potter, one of Derek's lawyers.

That motive was to prevent Terry King from finding out Chavis was having sex with Alex, said the younger boy's lawyer, James Stokes.

The King brothers testified against Chavis last week, but Chavis has refused to take the stand against them, exercising his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Chavis faces one or two more trials. One will be on a single count of committing a lewd and lascivious act against Alex. The other would be on charges of accessory after the fact to murder and evidence tampering. The latter counts will be dropped if the verdict is guilty in his murder trial.

All three defendants would get a sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. Each also is charged with arson; firefighters found the victim's body in his burning home in nearby Cantonment.

The first prosecution witness was Nancy Lay. She and her husband, Frank Lay, a high school principal, were Derek's guardians for more than six years until he returned to his father nearly two months before the killing.

The Lays caught Derek two days before the killing when he returned to their neighborhood to visit a girl after both brothers had run away from home. Derek begged not to be returned home and said his brother had a plan to kill their father, Nancy Lay said.

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