Hate crime trial has begun in murder of gay middle school student Larry King
(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - Brandon McInerney, a 17-year-old driven by white supremacist beliefs, executed gay classmate, Larry King, at school with two gunshots to the back of his head, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday in her opening statement.
McInerney is on trial on a charge of first-degree murder in the Feb. 2008 killing. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
Opening statements were held Tuesday at a courthouse in the San Fernando Valley after a judge changed the venue.
Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox told the nine-woman, three-man jury that McInerney smuggled a .22-caliber handgun into the school and sat behind King, who was at a computer station.
McInerney shot King once then stood up and made eye contact with others in the classroom before firing another round with the gun only inches from the victim's head, Fox said. The defendant dropped the gun and walked from the room, she said.
"The evidence in this case will prove to you that this killing was an execution," Fox said.
According to Fox, jurors will hear from students who will testify about the rocky relationship between the two boys. Among them, they will hear from one friend who said he heard King tell the defendant, "'I love you, baby"' the day before the shooting, Fox said.
Another friend is expected to testify that McInerney said, "Say goodbye to your friend Larry because you won't see him after tomorrow."
White supremacist materials were found in McInerney's bedroom, including books and drawings of swastikas. McInerney didn't attend a school field trip to the Museum of Tolerance, the educational arm of the human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center, court records showed.
McInerney, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, has pleaded not guilty to murder, lying in wait and a hate crime.
On the other side, defense attorney Scott Wippert said his client reached an emotional breaking point when he shot King and should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Both teens came from broken homes, but King was the aggressor by making unwanted sexual advances to McInerney and other boys, Wippert said.
"He did this out of heat of passion," Wippert said of McInerney. "These were two troubled young men and this was a tragedy."
McInerney came from an abusive household where his father, William McInerney, was sentenced for battery against his mother in 2000. William McInerney also was accused of shooting her in the elbow several months before his son was born.
He died in March 2009 of blunt-force head trauma at his home. The coroner ruled his death was accidental.
Larry also had a rough upbringing. He lived at a center for abused and neglected children in the months before his death.
Gay-rights advocates and parents in Oxnard, a city about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, wondered why school officials hadn't done more to stop the harassment toward Larry by students, including McInerney.
Larry's family sued the school district, among two dozen defendants, for failing to protect the teen.
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