PENSACOLA, Fla. — A boy whose tape-recorded confession was played at his murder trial told a different story hours later on the witness stand, saying a family friend he had once loved emotionally and sexually is the one who killed his father.
Testifying in his trial Wednesday, 13-year-old Alex King calmly denied that he and his brother Derek, now 14, killed their father with a baseball bat last fall. He blamed the slaying on Ricky Chavis.
"He told us that there had been a fight," Alex testified. "He said he had killed my dad to protect us."
Alex gave similar testimony against Chavis, 40, at the man's trial last week. Chavis was tried for the same crime before a different jury, but the verdict will remain sealed until the boys' trial is over.
The boys were 12 and 13 at the time of the slaying.
Like Chavis, Alex and Derek King are being tried as adults on charges of first-degree murder and arson. Each would receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of killing Terry King, 40.
Chavis still faces trial on a single count of committing a lewd and lascivious act against Alex.
For the second time in as many weeks, Alex repudiated confessions he and Derek gave to Escambia County sheriff's deputies a day after their father was bludgeoned to death.
Alex said the brothers hid in the trunk of Chavis' car while Chavis killed their father shortly after the boys returned home from running away. They had spent nearly 10 days with Chavis, hiding under a trap door when their father came to visit, Alex said.
Firefighters found King's body inside his burning home Nov. 26.
Unlike last week, when he testified in a green jail jump suit and handcuffs, Alex had on a long-sleeve dress shirt and tie and his hands were unbound. He looked straight at the lawyers as he answered their questions instead of staring down most of the time as he had done last week.
Alex testified that Chavis committed the murder because he was afraid Terry King would find out he was having sex with the boy. Chavis persuaded the brothers to take the blame by telling them that, as juveniles, they could get off by claiming self-defense, Alex said.
"I wanted to be with Rick because I was in love with Rick," the boy said. "He said my dad would have killed us before he would have let us go."
Alex said Chavis let the boys play video games, watch television as late as they wanted to and smoke marijuana at his Pensacola home.