2 To Stand Trial In Slaying Of Teen Beaten With Skateboard, Stabbed
WYOMING, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - Two western Michigan teens have been ordered to stand trial on murder charges in an alleged thrill kill.
Both appeared Wednesday at a preliminary hearing in Wyoming District Court for the stabbing and beating of a 16-year-old acquaintance in a Grand Rapids-area park.
A Wyoming police detective testified that one of the 15-year-olds confessed to investigators that he had "planned to do it all week" and stabbed Michael White multiple times multiple times in the back, slashed his throat, and beat him with a skateboard.
Police said White had been out with friends that night and his mother got worried when he didn't come home. His body was found the next morning, March 19, by a resident walking a dog in Lions Park.
As far as evidence, the Grand Rapids Press reports that police found incriminating digital messages between the two 15-year-olds, and a pair of bloody jeans was found at one of the teens' homes. Brass knuckles and a broken knife were found at the park.
The newspaper reported police have suggested no motive for the killing, other than murder itself.
"They didn't have a grudge against him," White's aunt, Kristen Colby said she was told by detectives. "They just wanted to kill somebody and one of them decided he was the target."
White was described by family members as a teen who loved to skateboard and who wanted to see good in everyone. "He was a very free spirit -- in touch with nature, loved fishing and hunting," another aunt, Heather Stark, told TV station WZZM.
The Associated Press isn't naming the boys charged due to their age. Their trial date was not immediately set.
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