Brothers convicted of killing father with bat

A jury in the US has convicted two young brothers of battering their sleeping father to death with a baseball bat in an unusual case in which a family friend was acquitted of the crime under a completely different prosecution theory.

Derek King, 14, yesterday bowed his head as he was convicted of the second degree murder of his 40-year-old father Terry at a court in Pensacola, Florida, yesterday.

His tearful 13-year-old brother Alex was comforted by his lawyer after the jury convicted him on the same charge. The teenagers’ mother wept softly in the courtroom gallery behind them.

The boys, who were tried as adults, each face 22 years to life in prison on the second-degree murder charge alone. They were also convicted of arson for trying to burn down their home around the battered body of Mr King.

A short time later, a separate jury announced that the family friend, Ricky Chavis, had been cleared of first-degree murder and arson during a trial last month. The verdict was reached last week and sealed pending the outcome of the boys’ trial.

The boys’ taped confessions to sheriff’s deputies were played for jurors during Mr Chavis’s trial.

The brutal crime had riveted much of Florida.

Prosecutors admitted in court that their case against Mr Chavis was weak, and some legal experts questioned the decision to try both the boys on second degree murder and Mr Chavis on first-degree murder charges for the same crime.

The boys confessed the day after the November 26 slaying, but later recanted and testified against Mr Chavis. Alex King said the boys initially took the blame because they wanted to live with the 40-year-old convicted child molester, and he had told them they would be exonerated because they are juveniles.

Defence lawyers said the boys confessed to protect Mr Chavis who had coached them over what to say. That included such gory details as being able to see their father’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 King’s lawyer. “The boys’ stories line up because the boys’ stories are rehearsed.”

The boys’ lawyers also argued that Mr Chavis had motive because he wanted to keep Mr King from finding out he was having sex with his youngest son.

Prosecutor David Rimmer said the boys were telling the truth the first time, and that their confessions included details only the killer would have known.

The boys sat at different tables with their lawyers as they awaited the verdict. Derek rocked slightly in his chair and stifled yawns, while his brother chatted with his lawyer.

After the verdict, both sat in silence, with Alex struggling to hold back tears.

The boys changed their stories more than four months after the murder, telling a grand jury that Mr Chavis killed their father.

At Mr Chavis’s trial, prosecutors put the boys on the witness stand, where they said they hid in the trunk of his car while he killed their father. The house was set on fire. The boys were 12 and 13 at the time.

But Mr Rimmer avoided asking the Chavis jury for a conviction, saying the only reason the case came to trial was because the boys had lied _ either when they told authorities they killed their father or to jurors when they said Mr Chavis did.

He said it was up to the jury to decide, adding: “I don’t have a dog in this fight.”

But At the boys’ trial prosecutors said it was Derek who swung the bat while Alex urged him on.

Mr Rimmer said the boys wanted to escape their controlling father and live with Mr Chavis, who allowed them to 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.

Defence lawyers asked Judge Frank Bell to acquit the boys because of the competing theories of the crime, but the judge denied their motions.