Strange Fla. Teens Case Gets Stranger
Calling the case of two teenage brothers convicted in the fatal bludgeoning of their father "unusual and bizarre," a judge tossed out the convictions and ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to try to resolve the case in mediation.
Circuit Judge Frank Bell said Thursday the boys' rights were violated in part by the way prosecutors simultaneously presented two contradictory theories of the crime.
Prosecutors won the conviction of Alex and Derek King last month by arguing that Derek, the older boy, swung the aluminum baseball bat that killed their father. In a trial that ended a week earlier, the prosecution's star witnesses — Alex and Derek — testified that Ricky Chavis, an adult friend, committed the crime.
The judge said he will order a new trial for the boys, and in the meantime will appoint a mediator who will try to work out a deal.
Alex and Derek King's attorney Sharon Potter said she was "pretty surprised" by the judge's action. "I did not expect that," she said. She also said she'd be "surprised if we reached a good resolution in mediation. It all depends on what the prosecutor brings to the table."
Speaking Friday on CBS' The Early Show, Potter said, "The boys should be released from jail today. I think the boys need counseling for everything they have been through."
The boys' step-grandmother, Lisa French, said they "may have been involved to a point simply because of their friendship with Ricky Chavis. But I don't think that Derek swung the bat and I don't think they were present when the murder took place."
The brothers were facing prison terms of 20 years to life because they were tried as adults. They were convicted of second-degree murder without a weapon, as well as arson, for setting the house on fire to cover the crime.
The brothers' lawyers argued that Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer committed prosecutorial misconduct for pursuing the contradictory theories.
Chavis, a convicted child molester, was acquitted, but the verdict was sealed until the boys' trial was over.
Jurors in the boys' trial said they believed Chavis was the real killer and that the brothers had only helped him commit the crime.
Rimmer defended his handling of the two trials. He said he never actually argued Chavis was the killer, and instead left it to jurors to decide.
Christopher Slobogin, a law professor at the University of Florida, said the judge made the right decision. He said the judge recognized a need to rectify an appearance of injustice, if not actual injustice, in the way prosecutors pursued conflicting cases.
"To many people, that smacked of risking inconsistent verdicts and allowing convictions when in fact there really wasn't proof beyond a reasonable doubt of guilt," the professor said.
Alex was 12 and Derek 13 last November when their father was killed in nearby Cantonment. Terry King, 40, was clubbed in the head with an aluminum baseball bat as he dozed in a recliner.
Prosecutors said the boys did it because their father was too controlling and they wanted to live with Chavis, who let them smoke marijuana and stay up late watching television.