Alex and Derek were swiftly indicted by a grand jury on first-degree murder charges, and Chavis was charged with being an accessory after the fact, tampering with evidence, and molesting Alex. Surprisingly, Chavis was later acquitted of the sex-offenses involving Alex.
Although their confession had contained details of Terry King’s murder that could have only been known by the perpetrators, the boys recanted and instead blamed Chavis, insisting that he had killed their father while they waited outside, hiding in the trunk of Chavis’s car. Chavis was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and arson.
In August 2002, Chavis was the first to go on trial for Terry King’s murder. After hearing four days of testimony, the jury deliberated for five hours before announcing that they had reached a verdict. The judge, however, ordered that the verdict be sealed until after Alex and Derek’s trial, scheduled for the following week.
Although the boys had been charged with first-degree murder, the jury was allowed by law to find them guilty of a lesser charge—which they did. Alex and Derek were convicted of second-degree murder, for which they could have been sentenced to 22 years to life in prison. Following the boys’ verdict, the judge unsealed Chavis’s verdict—he had been found not guilty on the murder and arson charges. In another legal proceeding later, Chavis was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact to third-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and false imprisonment involving Alex. He received the maximum sentence of 35 years, and is not scheduled for release until 2037.
In the meantime, Escambia County Circuit Court Judge Frank Bell granted a motion filed by the boys’ attorney to throw out their convictions. Bell ordered the prosecutors and the defense attorneys into mediation to straighten out the cases. He said that if the mediation talks failed, he would order a new trial for the boys. As a basis for his decision, Bell cited the state’s presentation—in the two separate trials—of conflicting evidence regarding who actually wielded the bat.
