U.S.

Teen Guilty of Mom's Murder

June 5, 1998 / 4:48 PM EDT / AP

The teen-ager accused of killing two classmates and wounding seven others during a school shooting spree was convicted Friday of killing his mother earlier that day. He was sentenced to life in prison.

The jury deliberated about three hours before returning the murder conviction, rejecting the defense contention that Luke Woodham was mentally ill.

Woodham stood expressionless as the verdict was read in court. He answered "no, sir," when asked by Circuit Judge Samac Richardson if he had anything to say before sentence was passed.

Deputies led him from the court in handcuffs.

The verdict came after a five-day trial. Authorities said Woodham killed his 50-year-old mother, Mary Woodham, by stabbing her repeatedly and beating her with a baseball bat on the morning of Oct. 1.

Hours later, he allegedly pulled a rifle from under a trench coat and shooting several students at Pearl High School, where he was an eleventh grader. The shooting spree left two students, including his former girlfriend, dead and seven others injured.

Woodham, 17, faces a second trial beginning next Monday in the school shootings, the first in a string of similar rampages nationwide.

"He's mean. He's hateful," Assistant District Attorney Tim Jones said of Woodham in his closing argument. "He's bloodthirsty. He wanted to kill her. Murder was on this boy's mind."

Woodham broke down in tears as Jones repeatedly described his mother's murder as a deliberate, planned act.

Defense lawyers put on their case in one day Thursday, centering on claims Woodham wasn't responsible for his actions because he is mentally ill and that he was under the control of Grant Boyette, 19.

Testifying through sobs on Thursday, Woodham said he woke up the day of the killings taunted by demons. He recalled taking a knife to his mother's room, all the while hearing an older teen-ager's voice in his head. But Woodham said he doesn't remember killing his mother.

"I just closed my eyes and fought with myself because I didn't want to do any of it," he said. "When I opened my eyes, my mother was lying in her bed dead."

Police say Boyette led a cultlike group, "The Kroth," that included Woodham. Several members of the group, including Boyette, face conspiracy charges in the school shootings.

"I remember I woke up that morning and I'd seen demons that I always saw when Grant told me to do something," Woodham told jurors. "They said I was nothing and I would never be anything if I didn't get to that school and kill those people."

A defense medical expert testified Woodham suffered from a variety of psychological problems.

"It's my opinion that as a result of the vulnerability of this very psychologically disturbed young man, Grant (Boyette) was able to exploit him," said Dr. Michael Jepsen, a forensic psychologist from Santa Fe, N.M.

Two prosecution experts said they believe Woodham was sane at the time of he killings.

Dr. Reb McMichael, psychiatrist at the state hospital, where Woodham was examined, said he thinks the boy may have mental problems but wasn't insane that day.

"He is not so wrong that I would consider him to have a major mental disorder," he said.

In a videotaped confession played for jurors earlier in the trial, Woodham said: "I didn't want to kill my mother. ... I just wanted her to understand."

Woodham told prosecutors that demons urged him to kill fellow students, but he did not specifically say Boyette ordered his mother's death.

Jurors were read a document with information to which attorneys agreed that another co-defendant in the school shootings, 18-year-old Donnie Brooks, would testify if he took the stand.

The statement said Boyette called himself the "master of high demon activity." Brooks said Boyette "told us what to do and how to do it."