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Youths On Trial for Father's Murder

Aired September 04, 2002 - 14:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, to a chilling murder trial of two teenage brothers underway in the Florida panhandle. It is one of two trials with separate juries, and lots of finger-pointing.
CNN's David Mattingly is following the proceedings. He brings us the latest -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, Alex and Derek, 13 and 12-year-old brothers, had run away in November, claiming that their father, Terry King, had mentally and physically abused them. When they returned home, according to what they initially told police, they said that they had feared punishment, so they plotted and killed their father with an aluminum baseball bat. And today, with the brothers on trial for murder, a jury listened to those chilling taped confessions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK KING, VICTIM'S SON: I hit him once and I heard him moan, and then I was afraid that he might wake up and see us, so I just kept on hitting him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

D. KING: Hit him somewhere around ten times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the blows to what area?

D. KING: The face, the face. The left side of the face and the forehead.

ALEX KING, VICTIM'S SON: Both times he made contact, blood come from his head. Then he smashed -- he smashed his face in. His skull -- normally, his forehead is in line. Well, his nose comes out further than his forehead, normally. He (UNINTELLIGIBLE) his head -- but whenever he smashes his face in, he smashed it in further than his head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Really hard to listen to, and this is the second time a jury has heard these confessions. But last week, prosecutors were arguing that it wasn't the boys who killed their father, but rather a family friend and convicted child molester Ricky Chavis. In that case last week, it was Chavis who was allegedly was emotionally attached to the 12-year-old Alex, and manipulated the boys to fear their father. He was the one, according to prosecutors, who allegedly killed the boy's father and convinced them to take the blame, reasoning that they were juveniles and wouldn't go to prison. The brothers were even called to testify against him.

Now we don't know what the jury decided in that case. The verdict has been sealed while the brothers go on trial for the same crime, and we watched it playing out this week. And after listening to the taped confessions, how calmly and how detailed the boys described the murder, you can see why a grand jury didn't know which story to believe. The one where the boys they say they it did, or the ones where they implicated the family friend -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: David Mattingly. We will follow the trial. Thanks, David.

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