One Murder, Two Juries

By Michael Peltier

It was a twisted legal drama and a heartbreaker because two of the accused were the victim's soft-spoken sons. Within hours in one Pensacola, Fla., courtroom, two juries in two separate trials ended weeks of speculation about a case in which two competing theories were proffered to explain the fatal beating of Terry King, 40. In one trial, prosecutors maintained that King's son, 14, had bludgeoned his father with a baseball bat, urged on by his brother Alex, 13, and that the two then set fire to their house. In the other trial, prosecutors claimed that former family friend Ricky Chavis killed King, allegedly to protect his sexual relationship with Alex. Trial watchers wondering what would happen if Chavis and the boys were convicted of the same crime never got to find out. The brothers were found guilty of second-degree murder and arson, and Chavis--to the amazement of the boys' jury--was acquitted. "I was so shocked," forewoman Lynne Schwarz told the Pensacola News Journal. She voted to let the boys off with second-degree murder because she was convinced Chavis did the deed. But attorneys close to the case say it was virtually impossible to convict Chavis after Judge Frank Bell ruled that there was insufficient evidence that Chavis was an accomplice or a mastermind, and that prosecutors had to prove he wielded the bat--which they couldn't do. Chavis still faces charges of molesting Alex and being an accessory after the fact, which could put him away for up to 30 years. --By Michael Peltier