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American Morning

Florida Boys On Trial for Father's Murder

Aired September 05, 2002 - 07:36   ET

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

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we're going to move on to a really bizarre story out of Pensacola, Florida. It involves a murder case that could be making legal history. Two boys on trial as adults for the murder of their father. But someone else has already been tried for the same crime and we don't know the verdict in that case.
The story now from David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Based on looks alone, the possibility that these young brothers with choir boy faces could plot and murder their own father might seem inconceivable. Yet Derek and Alex King are on trial for doing just that last November in Escambia County, Florida. And in court Wednesday, the boys' own words, confessions taped by police shortly after the murder played for the jury.

DEREK KING, DEFENDANT: I hit him once and I heard him move, and then I was afraid that he might wake up and see us. So I just kept on hitting him.

MATTINGLY: At the time just 13, it was older brother Derek saying he struck the killing blows. Little brother Alex, 12 at the time, said it was he who came up with the idea and watched as his brother carry it out.

But on the stand, in a 180-degree turn, Alex now says the killer was family friend Ricky Chavis. Alex testified the night of the murder Chavis entered their bedroom and had boys hide in the trunk of his car before taking them secretly to stay at his home.

ALEX KING, DEFENDANT: He said that there had been a fight between my dad and my dad, and he said that my dad was dead.

MATTINGLY: Alex told the court Chavis coached the boys on details of the crime and convinced them into taking the blame, thinking that as juveniles they would not go to prison.

A. KING: I was upset, crying, I was angry, kind of angry at him, you know? But he kept saying like I mean that he had done it for me.

MATTINGLY: Alex also giving details into a sexual, and what he described as a deeply emotional relationship he claims to have had with Chavis, a convicted child molester, testifying Chavis told him he killed the father so the two could be together.

A. KING: He was saying that he had done it for us. He said he, my dad would never have let us live with him. He'd never let us go.

MATTINGLY: But with two compelling versions of a brutal murder, a grand jury compelled prosecutors to try Chavis and the brothers for the same murder, with two separate juries, in two separate trials.

Chavis maintained his innocence in his murder trial last week, as the boys provided key testimony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... what to say to police as far as what you killed your father with?

D. KING: A bat.

MATTINGLY: The jury in the Chavis trial reached its verdict last week. That verdict, however, is sealed and won't be revealed until a new jury decides the fate of Derek and Alex. Beyond the shocking nature of this crime, the case has become a legal sensation: two distinct stories, two separate trials, two juries whose verdicts could fail to agree on who is the true killer.

David Mattingly, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Well, we're going to turn to a guy now that's just about seen it all in the legal world until this one came along.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Not this.

ZAHN: CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, good morning.

TOOBIN: Good morning.

ZAHN: Let's revisit some of the very disturbing testimony of Alex, the younger brother. He went on to talk about kissing Rick Chavis, sharing a bed with him and in this small piece of tape we're going to hear now, he talked about Chavis giving him marijuana and told him that, I guess Chavis at the same time told him his dad was not his real father and that explained why this little Alex ran off to live with Chavis.

Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX KING: Because I wanted to be with Rick and, yes. Because the stuff that he has done is like, he let us smoke weed and like play his games and stuff, watch TV real late and I wanted to be with Rick because I was in love with Rick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: How is a jury likely to react to that?

TOOBIN: It's so hard to know because, you know, what we haven't seen is, you know, these two boys confessed to murdering their father. And this testimony that took place yesterday is Alex, the younger one, saying no, no, no, the confession was wrong. I take back the confession.

Juries are tough. Juries tend to believe confessions, even though, as we now know, they're not always true.

ZAHN: These are little kids.

TOOBIN: Well, I mean, you know, somebody killed this, somebody killed their father and, you know, there is other evidence tying the kids to the crime. There is, on their shoes there is paint thinner that was apparently used as the accelerant in the fire, in the arson that took place after the murder. So there is other test -- there is other evidence in the case tying them to the crime.

You know, I don't pretend to know what the answer is, much less what the jury will do. But I think it's far from out of the question that these kids will be convicted.

ZAHN: But Alex on the stand was a pretty cool customer. And let's play this small part of testimony where he basically denied that he and his brother were involved in his father's murder.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you in the room when he was killed that night?

ALEX KING: No, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Derek kill your father?

ALEX KING: No, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: So I know it's difficult to predict which way a jury will read that, but just as an impartial observer here, how did that play with you? I mean was this kid manipulated? Was he, or was he victimized or what?

TOOBIN: He has, he obviously has a motive to say he didn't do it. I mean he's on trial for his life. But he's a very sympathetic kid. I mean he's 13, but he looks about eight. And, you know, the extraordinary thing about this trial, or one of the extraordinary things is he's not looking at 20 to life, he's not looking at 30 to life, he's looking at dying in prison of old age, that little boy, if he's convicted. I mean that alone is just a chilling amazing thought.

ZAHN: Is it possible you could come up with a double conviction here?

TOOBIN: Well, see, that's what I...

ZAHN: Can Ricky Chavis, can that verdict be sitting in an envelope that said he did it and then this jury says this kid did it?

TOOBIN: As I, I mean I don't, you know, want to be like the lord high prosecutor here, but I have real troubles with what the prosecutors did. Because you're supposed to really believe in your case when you're a prosecutor. You're supposed to say to yourself this is the theory of the case and this is what we did.

If the prosecution wins both these cases, it means to a certainty that one, two or three of these people will be in jail for the rest of their lives for a crime they did not commit.

ZAHN: Well, that makes no sense.

TOOBIN: They're inconsistent. I mean that's not right. I think it's very vulnerable on appeal if they're both convicted. But I think what the judge, I guess, decided to do is sort of let the juries play it out and maybe somebody will be acquitted so there won't be that sort of problem.

But, boy, I, it's not the way to run a railroad.

ZAHN: Very strange, indeed.

Jeffrey Toobin, thanks for your perspective.

TOOBIN: It's going to wrap up soon.

ZAHN: Yes. We'll bring you back to tell us more about it.

Thanks.

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