Sons Found Guilty Of Dad's Murder

A jury convicted 13- and 14-year-old brothers Friday of murdering their sleeping father with a baseball bat in an unusual case in which an adult friend was acquitted of the crime under a completely different prosecution theory.

The older brother, Derek King, bowed his head as the verdict was read, while Alex King wiped away tears as his attorney draped an arm around his shoulders. Their 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 Terry King, 40.

A short time later, a separate jury announced that a family friend, Ricky Chavis, had been acquitted 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. Chavis is a convicted child molester who reportedly had sex with Alex, the younger brother.

If all three had been found guilty, it would have presented a lot of grounds for appeals, since prosecutors had laid out alternative scenarios for King's death in the two separate trials.

CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen says it's not unusual to have co-defendants in a murder case. "What's unusual is to have separate trials in which the government's theories of the case contradict each other."

Cohen says, "Either the boys did it, or Chavis did, but all three could not have done it if you buy the prosecution's argument, and that means big problems for the State on appeal if there are convictions in both cases."

The Chavis acquittal is bad news for the boys, Cohen says.

"This isn't good news for the King boys because I think it makes it significantly harder for their attorneys to argue on appeal that prosecutors unfairly went after the Kings and Chavis for the same crime when all three could not have committed the crime together.

"Essentially the two juries have sorted out what prosecutors should have sorted out before bringing the cases against either Chavis or the King boys. And these two verdicts make the appeals issues a lot neater for prosecutors and a lot more difficult for the King defense.

"In the end, the boys' confessions were clearly the most significant part of this entire story. They certainly helped convict both King brothers and certainly helped gain an acquittal for Ricky Chavis. And I suppose the lesson is that jurors pay particular attention to confessions and don't believe defendants when they recant them,'' Cohen concludes.

Chavis and the boys were charged with first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence. The boys face a sentence of 22 years to life on the reduced charge, prosecutor David Rimmer said.

They boys' mother, Kelly Marino, cried softly after hearing the verdict. Marino, who never married Terry King, had moved to Kentucky about three years before the killings. Joyce Tracy, the mother of the 40-year-old victim, bowed her head.

Rimmer, who prosecuted both cases, conceded in court that his case against Chavis was weak. It was based almost entirely on testimony from the brothers.

The boys said during Chavis' trial that they hid in the trunk of Chavis' car while he killed their father. The house was set on fire. Alex also testified that he loved Chavis and had sex with him.

That testimony contradicted detailed confessions given by the boys a day after the killing. Alex repeated the testimony in the brothers' trial, but Derek did not take the witness stand.

The boys were 12 and 13 when their father was killed and were tried as adults.

Prosecutors and the boys' attorneys did not immediately comment Friday, awaiting the reading of Chavis' verdict.

During closing arguments Thursday, defense lawyers said the boys confessed to protect Chavis and parroted what he coached them to say. That included such gory details as being able to see the victim's brain through a hole in his head and the raspy sound of his last gasps.

But Rimmer asked the boys' jurors not to be swayed by their ages or anger with Chavis, who will be tried separately on a charge of molesting Alex.

"You should judge them by their actions, not their ages, by the evidence, not by your emotions," Rimmer said. "You can't let sympathy interfere with your verdict."

But Rimmer said the boys were telling the truth the first time, and that their confessions are filled with the kind of detail only someone who was there would have known.

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

He said it was up to the jury to decide which was the lie and added: "I don't have a dog in this fight."

During the brothers' trial, defense lawyers asked Judge Bell to acquit the boys because of the competing theories of the crime, but Bell denied their motions.

The boys' lawyers accused Rimmer of prosecutorial misconduct and violating their constitutional rights. Rimmer replied the only reason Chavis was tried was because the boys changed their story and that they should not be able to escape prosecution for that reason.

Rimmer was clearly reluctant to prosecute Chavis, saying at a pretrial hearing he did not want to try anyone who was innocent. He went ahead with the case after consulting his boss, State Attorney Curtis Golden.