Stanley Kralik was seventeen when he beat a man to death. According to court documents Stanley Kralik thought that one of his friends was sexually assaulted by an ex Marine. Stanley Kralik and Oliver Trizarri lured the victim to the woods, choked and beat him to death with a shovel. This teen killer was convicted of third degree murder and sentenced to forty years in prison
Stanley Kralik 2023 Information
Parole Number:MQ9470 Age: 22 Date of Birth: 09/12/1997 Race: WHITE Height: 5′ 09″ Gender: MALE Citizenship: USA Complexion: MEDIUM Current Location: PINE GROVE Permanent Location: PINE GROVE Committing County: SCHUYLKILL Last Updated Time: 12/17/2019 4:00:16 AM
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Jurors have convicted a Schuylkill County man of third-degree murder in the death of an ex-Marine who authorities say was killed in revenge for an alleged sexual assault.
The Schuylkill County panel deliberated for less than two hours Wednesday before convicting 18-year-old Stanley Kralik of Coaldale of the charge along with conspiracy, aggravated assault, robbery and theft.
Authorities alleged that he and 23-year-old Oliver Trizarri of Reading lured 24-year-old Corey Samuels into the woods in January 2014 and beat him with a shovel and choked him because they believed he had sexually assaulted a friend of Kralik.
Trizarri pleaded guilty in February to third-degree murder and testified for the prosecution. Kralik testified Tuesday that he merely witnessed Trizarri commit the murder.
The trial of a Schuylkill County man accused of killing a Marine more than two years ago has come to an end. Stanley Kralik has been found guilty on charges of third degree murder, conspiracy, aggravated assault as well as robbery and theft.
A sentencing date is scheduled for August 16.
Closing arguments were heard Wednesday in the case against Stanley Kralik.
The verdict came 24 hours after he took the stand, hoping to convince a jury of his innocence in the 2014 murder of Schuylkill County Marine Cory Samuels.
He testified he merely witnessed the killing, but had nothing to do with it.
A judge in Schuylkill County found there’s enough evidence to send a homicide case to trial.
Oliver Trizarri and Stanley Kralik are accused of killing a man in Coaldale more than a year ago because they thought the victim attacked a woman.
On the way into their preliminary hearing, Trizarri told Newswatch 16 that he did it.
“It wasn’t the thing I was supposed to do,” said Trizarri.
The 21-year-old is accused of killing Corey Samuels in January of 2014.
Stanley Kralik, 17, is charged with the same crime.
When asked if he did it, Kralik said, “I didn’t do anything.”
Police said the two men beat and strangled Samuels to death on January 20 in 2014 in Schuylkill county.
Samuels’ body was discovered months later, on September 6 of last year.
The remains were found in a wooded area in Coaldale
State police said his body parts were scattered throughout 100 feet.
During the preliminary hearing, a state trooper testified that the men originally told police the group was having a boys night in the woods. They got into a fight and then Samuels ran off. But Trizarri later admitted that the two beat the 24 year old and then shoveled snow over his body and blood.
The men told police they did it because Samuels assaulted their friend first, but charges were never filed.
“I don’t know how they could do it. It was a stupid reason,” said Tara Kurtz, Samuel’s girlfriend at the time of the crime.
She said the two suspects lied to her and even helped her look for Samuels days after he went missing.
Kurtz said Trizarri and Kralik are liars.
“Corey was a good guy, funny. He never would have hurt anybody.”
Kurtz said the worst part is that Samuels thought the two suspects were his friends.
On the way out of the hearing, Trizarri says the whole thing is messed up.
“It’s an emotional thing.”
“Why is it emotional?”
“Because it’s wrong.”
Both men are charged with criminal homicide.
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Stanley Kralik is currently incarcerated at the Pine Grove Facility
Sarah Kolb was sixteen years old when she helped to murder a teenage girl with her boyfriend seventeen year old Cory Gregory. According to court documents a new girl had arrived at school named Adrianne Reynolds and she apparently made a mistake of flirting with Cory. Sarah became upset and began to plan the murder of Adrianne.
The couple invited Reynolds out for lunch and soon thereafter the attack began. Adrianne was held down by Gregory while Sarah strangled her with a belt causing her death. After she was dead Gregory and Kolb attempted to burn the body but failed to do so. They involved another teen who would dismember the body with a chainsaw before placing the remains in a garbage bag and dropping it off at a historic site. The body of Adrianne Reynolds would be found a few days later. Sarah and Cory would both soon be arrested and after the court was through. The two teen killers would receive sentences of forty five years for him and fifty three years for her
Sarah Kolb 2023 Information
Sarah Kolb – Current Facility – LOGAN CORRECTIONAL CENTER – Current Release Date – 2058
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Sarah Kolb and Cory Gregory made national headlines when they murdered classmate Adrianne Reynolds
According to court documents Adrianne Reynolds had recently moved to East Moline, Illinois when she met Sarah Kolb and Cory Gregory. There are some who were there at the time who have said when Adrianne flirted with Cory it angered Sarah and she then hatched a plan to murder the girl
Sarah and Cory invited Adrianne out for lunch and soon after the two girls began to fight. Cory would hold Adrianne down while Sarah strangled her with a belt. After the murder the two teens then drove to Cory parents farm where they attempted to burn the corpse which failed. The two then recruited another teen to help them dismember the body. After that nasty task was completed the trio went out for lunch
Adrianne family reported her missing when she did not show up at work and police would find her remains a few days later. Sarah and Cory were soon arrested and charged with first degree murder
Sarah Kolb first trial ended in a hung jury as all jurors could not reach a unanimous decision. At her retrial she would be convicted on all counts and sentenced to fifty three years in prison
Cory Gregory was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to forty five years in prison
The third teen received a juvenile sentence and was released after four years
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Sarah Kolb, serving a 50-year sentence for the killing of Adrianne Reynolds, 16, has lost an attempt to get a new sentencing hearing.
Kolb was also 16 when Reynolds was strangled on Jan. 21, 2005, in a car at a Moline restaurant, according to authorities. In 2006, a jury found Kolb guilty of first-degree murder and concealing a homicidal death. She was later sentenced to 48 years in prison for the murder charge, and five years for the concealment charge. With credits for which Kolb qualified, the actual sentence was about 50 years.
Kolb has been pursuing a new sentencing hearing, but her filing, a petition for postconviction relief, was rejected Friday by Judge Gregory G. Chickris when he granted the Rock Island County State’s Attorney’s Office’s motion to dismiss.
Kolb was arguing that her original sentence was illegal because she was a minor when convicted, according to court documents. Such a sentence is essentially a life sentence for a minor and the court must take into account the defendant’s youth and its characteristics when imposing such a sentence.
Those characteristics include actual age, ability to appreciate the consequences of an act, family, home environment and competence to deal with police or assist in the defense.
Kolb claimed the sentencing court did not properly weigh all of the required factors, the documents state.
In its motion to dismiss, the Rock Island County State’s Attorney’s Office contended that the trial court adequately considered the required criteria and that Kolb’s arguments had not met the required deadline for filing.
The motion also stated that the appellate court upheld the conviction and sentence.
Kolb’s codefendant, Cory Gregory, was 17 when Reynolds was killed, and pleaded guilty in a plea deal to first-degree murder and concealing a homicidal death in relation to her slaying.
He was sentenced to 40 years on the murder charge and five years on the concealment charge, with credits reducing the sentence to about 42 years.
Gregory also argued for a new sentencing hearing, and Judge Peter Church ruled in May that he should get one, according to court records. The state’s attorney’s office has appealed, and a new sentencing hearing had not yet been scheduled as of Friday.
The stepmother of a 16-year-old girl whose body was burned, sawed and hidden in two counties said the teen convicted in the killing is “a girl without a soul.”
“She didn’t cry, I didn’t see nothing from her,” Joann Reynolds said Wednesday after a jury found 17-year-old Sarah Kolb guilty of first-degree murder and concealing a homicide in the death of Adrianne Reynolds.
Kolb’s court-appointed attorney, though, said the teen is not the vindictive killer portrayed by prosecutors. David Hoffman said he spoke briefly with Kolb after the verdict.
“She was scared and anxious and now she’s probably as depressed as hell. That’s the way I would be,” Hoffman said.
Adrianne Reynolds had just moved to East Moline from Texas about two months before she was killed. Prosecutors said she was just trying to fit in at a new school but picked the wrong friend.
The verdict came in Kolb’s second trial in three months. The first ended in a mistrial after a Rock Island County jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction and the retrial was moved to Dixon because of media coverage.
The Reynolds and Kolb families wept quietly as the jury was polled. Kolb’s family declined comment as they left the courthouse, but Hoffman said they were “devastated.”
Jurors declined comment as they rushed past a crowd of reporters outside the courthouse.
Kolb faces up to 60 years in prison, but no sentencing date has been set. Her ex-boyfriend, 18-year-old Cory Gregory of East Moline, also is charged with first-degree murder and concealing a homicide. He has pleaded not guilty and is to stand trial May 1.
Prosecutors allege Kolb, Reynolds and Gregory were in Kolb’s car at a Moline fast-food restaurant when a fight began Jan. 21, 2005. Authorities have determined that Reynolds was killed in the car.
In closing arguments this week, Prosecutor Jeff Terronez said Kolb wrote in a class journal that she was going to kill Reynolds just hours before Reynolds was beaten and strangled. Several witnesses testified that Kolb made similar threats in the weeks before Reynolds’ death.
Hoffman told jury that Gregory killed Reynolds, citing testimony by a woman who saw Kolb alone in the car’s front seat.
Terronez told jurors that Kolb likely did not kill Reynolds, but still was accountable by law because she instigated the fight and aided in the death by choking and beating Reynolds before Gregory “finished her off.”
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Sarah Kolb is currently incarcerated at the Logan Correctional Center
Sarah Kolb Release Date
Sarah Kolb is currently not scheduled for release until 2058
Sarah Kolb, 34, is one of the individuals convicted of murdering and dismembering the body of 16-year-old Adrianne Reynolds back in 2005. Kolb was 16 at the time and was sentenced to 53 years in prison.
Back in January, Kolb’s defense team asked the Third District Appellate Court in Ottawa to reduce her sentence, alleging that the judge in the original case did not take several factors into account when deciding her sentence, such as age, competence and family background.
Her legal team also argued that the sentence is a cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment — due to her age of 16 years at the time of the murder, her case conflicts with a 2019 Illinois Supreme Court decision that ruled that any sentence over 40 years for a juvenile is considered a life sentence.
Wednesday’s decision says Kolb’s team failed to show evidence that the original judge did violate her Eighth Amendment rights.
Just under a year ago, a Rock Island County judge upheld the 45-year sentence of Harli Quinn, formerly known as Cory Gregory.
At that time, Reynolds’ stepmother, Joann Reynolds, took the stand to read a victim impact statement. She told the court she was disgusted, saying Adrianne was the one who had been given the death penalty.
“It’s been 17 years since her life was taken. Every day of my life, I think about her fighting and kicking for her life. I think about her gasping for air. I think about body parts down that manhole,” Joann said.
Kip Kinkel was fifteen years old when he shot and killed two students in Oregon. Kip Kinkle according to court documents brought a gun to school, Thurston High, and would open fire killing two students. Kinkle who had been suspended for being in a possession of a weapon had earlier shot and killed his parents. The shooting at Thurston High could have been much worse as this teen killer had multiple weapons on him however when his first gun ran out of ammunition he was tackled and held down by fellow students. Kinkle would be ultimately sentence to over a hundred years in prison
Kip Kinkle 2023 Information
Offender Name:
Kinkel, Kipland Philip
Age:
37
DOB:
08/1982
Location:
Oregon State Correctional Institution
Gender:
Male
Race:
White Or European Origin
Status:
Inmate
Height:
5′ 10”
Hair:
Brown
Institution Admission Date:
11/10/1999
Weight:
220 lbs
Eyes:
Blue
Earliest Release Date:
01/21/2110
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The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a nearly 112-year prison sentence for Thurston High School shooter Kip Kinkel isn’t cruel and unusual punishment given the breadth and severity of his crimes.
Kip Kinkel was 15 when he killed his parents in their Springfield home on May 20, 1998, then showed up the next day at Thurston High with three guns hidden in his trench coat. He killed two classmates and wounded 24 others.
Kip Kinkel, now 35, appealed his sentence, arguing that it amounts to a life sentence without parole and violates the Eighth Amendment because he committed his crimes when he was a juvenile.
Kip Kinkel contends his long sentence falls under a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Miller v. Alabama. The ruling found that mandatory life sentences for two 14-year-old murder defendants were cruel and unusual punishment because of their age.
The 2012 decision has spurred a re-evaluation of juvenile murder sentences across the nation.
The Oregon Supreme Court, however, was unpersuaded by Kip Kinkel’s arguments.
The court found that Kip Kinkel’s crimes reflected “irreparable corruption” rather than youthful immaturity that could change over time. It noted that Kinkel’s sentencing judge found that he had an incurable illness, either paranoid schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
The court found that it couldn’t say Kip Kinkel’s sentence was “constitutionally disproportionate,” given the number of people he killed and injured.
One of seven Supreme Court judges — Justice Pro Tem James Egan — dissented.
Egan wrote that “it is difficult to comprehend how petitioner’s youth at the time of his crimes, in combination with his mental disorder, did not affect the nature and gravity of his crimes.”
The Oregon Justice Resource Center, which advocates for change in the juvenile justice system, praised Egan’s dissent.
“In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized fundamental differences between children and adults based on brain science and development,” said Bobbin Singh, the center’s executive director. “The scientific evidence is clear: all young people have inherent potential to grow and change including those who have committed the most serious crimes.”
The majority’s ruling affirms prior decisions by Lane County Circuit Judge Jack Mattison and by the Oregon Court of Appeals, which also found Kip Kinkel’s sentence constitutional.
Kip Kinkel’s attorney, Andy Simrin, said Kinkel still has paths for appeal. A federal habeas corpus case, which had been put on hold, will be reactivated. Kinkel also could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case, Simrin said.
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Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the Thurston High School shooting in Springfield, when teen gunman Kip Kinkel opened fire on his classmates. Two students died and twenty-five more were wounded. The bodies of Kinkel’s parents were found in their rural home, having been murdered by their son the night before.
Yesterday, we looked at what some survivors of that day have done since. And today, in the final segment of our three-part series, KLCC’s Brian Bull reports on what Kip Kinkel himself has been reportedly up to while serving a 112-year sentence.
To this day, many people wonder about Kip Kinkel…his activities today, as well as why he attacked his school two decades ago. Some note his parents let him go off Prozac in the months before the incident.
Others say Kinkel contended with bullying and anger issues. Betina Lynn was a teaching assistant in Kinkel’s Spanish class.
“There were a lot of people who very often went out of their way to make him feel like an outsider, to ostracize him, to tease him, to laugh at him, to make his life really hard and uncomfortable.”
Kip’s history included counseling sessions, experimenting with guns and explosives, and being grounded for pranks. He seemed intrigued by recent school shootings in Arkansas and Pennsylvania.
Once in custody, Kinkel was interviewed by a Springfield Police detective on the attacks against his classmates, and the murder of his parents. The boy referred to voices, and his head not being “right”.
Detective Al Warthen: “So you told me that your mom gets out of the (Ford) Explorer and starts up the stairs from the garage or basement, right?”
Kinkel: Yes.
Warthen: “Do you say anything to her?
Kinkel: Yes, I told her I loved her.
Warthen: “And then you shot –
Kip: Yes! God damn these voices inside my head!
Warthen: Alright, hey…Kip, settle down…
Those voices were expected to play heavily into Kinkel’s defense during the trial. But he dropped his claim of insanity, pleading guilty to 26 counts of attempted murder and four counts of first-degree murder.
Former Thurston High School vice principal Don Stone credits Kip’s sister, Kristin, for sparing Springfield a painful revisit of the tragedy.
“Previous to Kip’s trial, she basically talked him into just pleading guilty. She felt strongly that he shouldn’t put the community through ah, in essence, a second shooting…the trial.”
On this spring afternoon, Tony McCown sits at the Thurston Fence, a concrete and tile memorial to Kinkel’s victims. He watches as current students mill on and off the campus, like he and Kinkel used to before the shooting.
“Kip was certainly one of my best friends.”
While some people have painted Kinkel as a schizophrenic youth influenced by shock rock, gun culture, and bullying, McCown says the friend he knew didn’t particularly stand out as a troubled soul.
He says he visited and wrote Kip frequently after he was sent to the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn. Kinkel was transferred to the Oregon State Correctional Institution in 2007. McCown says he’s only visited his friend recently. But Kip has kept busy.
“Since he’s been in prison, he’s finished a Bachelor’s Degree,” begins McCown. “He’s received his electrical license, and he’s become the prison’s electrician. He teaches yoga in the mental health ward of the prison.
“He’s got an odd, centered peace to him.”
Kinkel himself has not granted any media interviews. His sentencing remains under appeal and was recently upheld by the Oregon Supreme Court.
However, a former inmate – who also served time for a violent offense committed while a youth – spent nearly six years with Kinkel at the state prison in Salem.
To protect his identity, we’ve electronically altered his voice. We’ll also call him “David”. He tells KLCC that he was struck by Kip Kinkel’s transition to a fairly dangerous place.
“A lot of the times, other individuals, especially with high profile cases, gang members and the rest will attack you pretty quickly,” explains David. “They’ll see it as an opportunity to score points in their gangs.
“So within the first month or so that he was there, he was attacked. Some man came behind him and struck him, hit him one or two times. It was unfortunate, it was on the yard, and that’s usually where those attacks happen. And he handled himself well, he didn’t strike back. Which is really the rule of the prison, you let the guards handle that.”
David confirms that Kinkel is now an electrician at the facility. He’s also worked in the prison library and when he’s not exercising, is a voracious reader.
“One of the first ‘connect’ books that we really read together was James Joyce’s Ulysses. He really enjoyed that. What’s another great one? Crime and Punishment was a book we explored together.
“So he reads a lot of poetry, he reads a lot of lit, and he’s reading it mostly not just to educate himself, but kind of understanding the broader humanity.”
Among Kinkel’s recurring visitors are ministers, suggesting he’s found religion. David puts it this way:
“I don’t know about “religion”, I’d say “spirituality”. And I think spirituality is part of a way to deal with sort of the moral challenges of having hurt so many people. Any sort of tragedy like this, there’s no fixing it, there’s no repairing it.
“And I think relying on meditation and prayer and thought towards the people who’ve have been harmed is really kind of his spiritual practice in big part.”
Kinkel says very little about May 21st, 1998, according to his friends. McCown says that even extends to his correspondence.
“I think he’s presented it in a way that he doesn’t want to hurt anybody, and he’s cognizant that written words could hurt people. So he’s very brief and concise in his letters,” says McCown.
Whether it’s education, or faith, or meditation, and yoga, he’s taken a lot of steps to make sure he can function. I think that living with those demons made it really hard to function for years.”
Just this month, the Oregon Supreme Court upheld Kinkel’s sentence, affirming rulings from two other courts. Kinkel’s defense is seizing upon several Supreme Court rulings in the last decade that they say can help reduce his sentence.
Portland attorney Andy Simrin says a 2012 case, Miller vs. Alabama, ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole are unconstitutional for crimes committed by juveniles. Simrin says it’s unlikely Kinkel will survive his time.
“He’s got to live to be 127 years old which is longer than any human in recorded history has lived so far.”
Simrin says there’s a possibility Kinkel’s case could reach the nation’s highest court.
“We can file what’s called a petition for a Writ of Certiorari. It’s like an application to get the case directly into the U.S. Supreme Court. And if you’ve got a good federal issue that they haven’t written on before, then there is some chance they may be interested.”
Tony McCown says were his friend ever to be released ahead of his 112-years, there’d be hard questions.
“Do I personally think that if you let Kip out, that he’d be a risk? Probably not. Would society be a threat to him? Yeah, probably.
“And then as a country, we have to consider what our incarcerated people can contribute anyway, and in a way I think Kip’s demonstrated that you can. I think he’s having an impact inside prison in a way that most people don’t.”
And David adds that for all his exchanges with Kinkel, he’s never talked with him about seeing a world beyond prison walls. But he understands that should Kinkel be released, there’d be resentment and fear in any community he lives in.
Mychal King was having a bad day so he decided to kill the next person he saw. According to court documents Mychal King was having a rough day when he saw the victim ride by him on a bicycle and proceeded to attack. According to autopsy reports the victim was stabbed twenty five times.
This teen killer initially got away with the brutal murder but eventually someone turned in the murder weapon and soon Mychal King was arrested. This teen killer who confessed to the murder would plead not guilty however eventually he would be sentenced to life in prison.
Mychal King 2023 Information
ID Photo
DC Number:
R79446
Name:
KING, MYCHAL T
Race:
BLACK
Sex:
MALE
Birth Date:
04/28/1997
Initial Receipt Date:
03/18/2015
Current Facility:
Gulf C.I
Current Custody:
CLOSE
Current Release Date:
SENTENCED TO LIFE
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Mychal King was 15 when authorities say he fatally stabbed a Clearwater bicyclist in 2013. Sentenced to life in prison, he is scheduled to be resentenced today under new state sentencing guidelines for juveniles convicted of murder that could lower his sentence to 40 years.
But his assistant public defender wants the court to withdraw King’s guilty plea. She argued in motions filed Thursday and Friday that audio recordings and transcripts of King’s three interviews with police were not released to prosecutors or King’s previous defense attorney.
Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said Monday though that Clearwater police did turn over recordings, which were copied to CDs and included in records provided to the defense.
“I have a hard time believing that would not have been something that would be provided to us,” he said.
On Jan. 5., 2013, Jason Paul, 22, was bicycling home from work near Crest Lake Park in Clearwater when he was stabbed repeatedly.
Seven months later, King was arrested. Someone turned in the military-style knife he allegedly used to stab Paul. King also confessed to the murder during an interview with detectives while he was being held at the Pinellas County jail on unrelated charges.
In January 2015, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and Pinellas Circuit Judge Joseph Bulone sentenced him to life in prison, with the chance of parole after 25 years.
But under new state laws in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that found automatic life sentences for juveniles unconstitutional, all juveniles convicted of murder cannot be sentenced without a hearing to determine if life imprisonment is an appropriate sentence. If the court finds that it’s not, the defendant gets a minimum of 40 years, with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
That means King, now 19, gets a chance at a lower sentence. In January, assistant public defender Stacey Schroeder took over his case. The State Attorney’s Office provided her with 735 pages of police reports. But records she requested from the Clearwater Police Department included three audio recordings and transcripts of King’s interrogations that were never part of the defense’s case files, she wrote in her filings.
Last week, she filed several motions, including one to suppress King’s interviews with police because the new records show that his statements were “illegally obtained.” Schroeder also filed to withdraw King’s guilty plea.
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A teenager was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for randomly stabbing and killing a stranger passing by on a bicycle
Mychal King hung his head and shook it when the judge asked if he wanted to say anything in the crowded courtroom. His mother made an attempt to stand up for her son, saying he was “not a bad kid,” but had gone through a rough time of near-homelessness. “We all do stupid things,” she added.
But the family and friends of victim Jason Paul, who packed the courtroom, stood up too. They said it was utterly unfair that they no longer get to see him and enjoy his company.
“Mychal, I do not understand how you could brutally stab someone you didn’t know just because you had a bad day,” Paul’s mother Renee Langfritz said during the hearing.
King was 15 in January 2013 when he brutally slashed Paul, 22, who was bicycling home from work near Crest Lake Park in Clearwater. King later told detectives he was extremely angry on that night and decided to kill the next person he saw.
“Do you know, Mychal, that our son lay dead in the street for over eight hours, alone? You took away all the hopes and dreams we had as parents,” Langfritz said.
“This was not a mistake or an accident or an unintended consequence,” Assistant State Attorney Joshua Riba said. “This crime, this murder, was a cold-blooded offense.”
In a surprise decision in January, King pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and unrelated charges, including sale and possession of cocaine and aggravated battery. He did not have a plea bargain, so he was putting himself at the court’s mercy. His attorney Daniel Hernandez said this showed he was taking responsibility for his crime.
Langfritz said she was glad she did not have to sit though a trial, but thought King should have had to endure one, so he could reflect on his crime. “Pleading guilty was a cowardly way out,” she said.
For Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Joseph Bulone, the case presented a complicated legal question. The U.S. Supreme Court has said people under 18 who commit murder cannot automatically be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But anyone else convicted of first-degree murder in Florida would either be given a life sentence without parole, or the death penalty.
Bulone said that under recent case law, he needed to sentence King to life in prison with a chance at parole after 25 years for the murder, although future decisions from appellate courts could change that
Clearwater Police have charged a suspect for the murder of Jason Paul, who was found stabbed to death near Crest Lake Park in January.
Mychal King, 16, was upset because of an argument with his family and decided to take his rage out on the next person he saw, which happened to be Paul, Police Chief Anthony Holloway said Thursday.
“This is really disturbing to us,” Holloway said regarding the lack of motive typical in a crime.
King already was in Pinellas County Jail on other charges when he was connected to this incident, Holloway said.
King is charged with first-degree murder, Holloway said.
Paul was riding his bike to his home on Franklin Street from work when King stopped and stabbed him, leaving his lifeless body near the 100 block of South Glenwood Avenue.
It was a short-cut route Paul recently started taking and was only a couple blocks away from home when he was killed.
Paul’s wallet, cell phone and cleaning supplies he purchased on his way home still were on him when investigators found him.
Paul loved skateboarding and his dog Marley, said Renee Paul Langfritz, Paul’s mother.
“His whole life was becoming great,” she said. “(He) just had a whole bright future.”
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Mychal King is currently incarcerated at Gulf Correctional Institute
Alex and Derek King were a pair of brothers from Florida who would make international headlines when they beat to death their father with a baseball bat. According to court documents the two teen killers who were aged twelve and thirteen at the time of the murder were being manipulated by a known sexual predator Rick Chavis who had convinced the boys to get rid of their father so they could be with him. On the night of the murder the two boys would fatally beat their father to death using a baseball bat and then would set the home on fire.
Alex King would be sentenced to seven years in prison and Derek King would receive an eight year sentence. Rick Chavis would not be charged in the murder however would receive a thirty year sentenced for sexual assault.
Alex King would die in April 2024
Alex And Derek King Other News
After two trials in which the prosecution presented different accounts of the same killing, a jury today convicted 13-year-old Alex King and 14-year-old Derek King of murdering their sleeping father in November and setting their house on fire to cover up their actions.
A separate jury acquitted Ricky Chavis, a 40-year-old family friend, who was tried for the same killing of the boys’ father, Terry Lee King. Mr. Chavis is said to have been sexually obsessed with Alex.
The age of the boys and the nature of the crime brought extensive attention to the case from the beginning. But the prosecutors’ approach greatly increased the attention and brought criticism from legal experts, who said it was rare to conduct separate prosecutions for a crime that only one defendant or set of defendants could have committed.
David Rimmer, the assistant state attorney who prosecuted both cases, was under a court order of silence during the trials. But today Mr. Rimmer said that his office brought both cases because the boys confessed to the crime before recanting before a grand jury and saying they were covering up for Mr. Chavis.
Mr. Rimmer said that it was up to the juries to decide which version of the events was accurate and that they did so today.
”I felt there was enough circumstantial evidence that he motivated and influenced them,” Mr. Rimmer said of Mr. Chavis. ”The boys said he was the perpetrator, but the jury rejected their testimony. They didn’t believe it.”
The jury in the Kings’ trial deliberated nearly five hours before finding the brothers guilty of second-degree murder and arson. The boys, who were 12 and 13 at the time of the killing and were being tried as adults, had faced first-degree murder charges.
By convicting the brothers of a lesser offense, the jury of three men and three women spared the Kings a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Instead, the boys, who are to be sentenced on Oct. 17 before Judge Frank Bell of Escambia County Circuit Court, face sentences of 22 years to life in prison.
”The jury gave them every break they thought they could give them,” Mr. Rimmer said.
The brothers also face sentences of 30 years in prison for the arson conviction.
Alex hung his head in his hand shortly after the verdict was read and wiped tears from his face. Derek King bowed his head. The boys’ mother, Kelly Marino, with whom they had not lived in seven years, sobbed in the courtroom when the verdict was read and quickly left.
”They were devastated,” said Greg King, the victim’s brother and the boys’ uncle. ”The judgment was the first time they realized the weight of what was going on.”
An hour after the verdict in the King trial was announced, the other jury announced its verdict in Mr. Chavis’s case. That case was tried last week but the verdict was sealed until the King trial concluded.
Mr. Chavis wiped away tears after the verdict was announced. ”He was greatly relieved,” said Mike Rollo, Mr. Chavis’s lawyer.
Mr. Chavis still faces charges of lewd and lascivious acts upon a minor and accessory to murder after the fact. Mr. Chavis has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Members of the King family were stunned by the Chavis verdict and angrily bolted from the courtroom after it was announced.
”I’m disappointed to have the adult manipulator set free yet have the abused children in prison,” Greg King said. ”But that’s our justice system.”
Felons convicted in Florida typically serve about 85 percent of their sentences, said Judge Bell, who presided over both trials. He could decide to sentence the King brothers to less than the 22-year recommended minimum sentence if he can show a ”clear and compelling case” to reduce it, Mr. Rimmer said.
In closing arguments on Thursday in the King trial, the prosecution told jurors not to be swayed by sympathy for Derek, who is accused of wielding the bat, and Alex, his baby-faced younger brother who, prosecutors said, planned the murder.
The case has riveted people here since the two boys were arrested on charges of bashing their 40-year-old father in the head with a baseball bat and setting their house in nearby Cantonment on fire. The brothers said they did that because they feared being punished for running away and also wanted to live with Mr. Chavis. Alex said he was in love with Mr. Chavis.
Even after the verdicts were in, criticism of the prosecution continued.
Mr. Rollo said his client never should have been tried. ”The juries rejected the testimony of the two co-defendants as having no merit and being untruthful,” he added.
Yale Kamisar, a professor of law at the University of Michigan, was highly critical of the prosecution, saying: ”The prosecution in this bizarre case has given both defendants reasonable doubt. It’s ridiculous to charge two parties separately in the same case.”
The King brothers’ case is the third in less than two years in which juveniles have been tried as adults in murder cases in Florida.
In March 2001, Lionel Tate, 14, was sentenced to life in prison for the beating death of a 6-year-old playmate. In July 2001, Nathaniel Brazill, 14, was sentenced to 28 years in prison for killing his teacher.
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A jury convicted 13- and 14-year-old brothers Friday of murdering their sleeping father with a baseball bat in an unusual case in which an adult friend was acquitted of the crime under a completely different prosecution theory.
The older brother, Derek King, bowed his head as the verdict was read, while Alex King wiped away tears as his attorney draped an arm around his shoulders. Their mother wept softly in the courtroom gallery behind them.
The boys, who were tried as adults, each face 22 years to life in prison on the second-degree murder charge alone. They were also convicted of arson for trying to burn down their home around the battered body of Terry King, 40.
A short time later, a separate jury announced that a family friend, Ricky Chavis, had been acquitted of first-degree murder and arson during a trial last month. The verdict was reached last week and sealed pending the outcome of the boys’ trial.
The boys’ taped confessions to sheriff’s deputies were played for jurors during Chavis’ trial.
The brutal crime, the ages of the two boys and the odd prosecution strategy had riveted much of Florida.
Prosecutors admitted in court that their case against Chavis was weak, and some legal experts questioned the decision to try both the boys and Chavis on first-degree murder charges for the same crime. Prosecutors argued in one trial that Chavis wielded the bat; they argued at the other trial that the boys who did it
Prosecutors said the boys wanted to escape their controlling father and live with Chavis, a 40-year-old convicted child molester who allowed them to play video games, stay up late watching television and smoke marijuana when they went to his house after running away from home 10 days before the killing.
The boys confessed the day after the Nov. 26 slaying, but recanted months later and pinned the crime on Chavis. Soft-spoken Alex said the boys initially took the blame because they wanted to live with Chavis and he had told them they would be exonerated because they are juveniles.
Defense lawyers said the boys confessed to protect Chavis and were coached by him on what to say. That included such gory details as being able to see their father’s brain through a hole in his head and the raspy sound of his last gasps.
“Everyone in this courtroom can repeat those details,” said James Stokes, Alex’s lawyer. “The boys’ stories line up because the boys’ stories are rehearsed.”
The boys’ attorneys also argued that Chavis had motive because he wanted to keep Terry King from finding out he was having sex with Alex.
Prosecutor David Rimmer said that the boys were telling the truth the first time, and that their confessions included details only the killer would have known.
The boys sat at different tables with their lawyers as they awaited the verdict. Derek rocked slightly in his chair and stifled yawns, while Alex chatted with his attorney.
After the verdict, both sat in silence, with Alex struggling to hold back tears.
At Chavis’ trial, prosecutors put the boys on the witness stand, where they said they hid in the trunk of his car while Chavis killed their father. The house was set on fire. The boys were 12 and 13 at the time.
Rimmer, however, avoided asking the Chavis jury for a conviction, saying the only reason the case came to trial was that the boys had lied — either when they told authorities they killed their father or to jurors when they said Chavis did.
He said it was up to the jury to decide, adding: “I don’t have a dog in this fight.”
At the boys’ trial, however, prosecutors said it was Derek who swung the bat while Alex urged him on.
Defense lawyers asked Judge Frank Bell to acquit the boys because of the competing theories of the crime, but the judge refused.
Christopher Slobogin, a University of Florida law professor, and Mark Seidenfeld, associate dean at Florida State University’s law school, said prosecutors should have decided who they thought was guilty and taken that case to trial.
“It’s on the verge of being unethical that they would pursue contradictory theories when they are relatively sure that the evidence points to one as opposed to another defendant,” Slobogin said.
But Slobogin also said there would have been nothing unconstitutional about having contradictory verdicts, and they could have been upheld on appeal.
“We’ve got two validly selected juries, and we have two trials that were conducted according to legitimate procedures, and we have two juries finding beyond a reasonable doubt about the guilt of the defendants,” he said.
Alex King, who made national headlines with his brother Derek King in 2001 after the young Pensacola brothers were arrested for killing their father, has passed away.
Alex King’s uncle, Greg King, reached out to the News Journal to share the news that his 35-year-old nephew has been on life-support at Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana, since April 14, after overdosing on drugs.
“(The doctor) knew him because he’d been in a few times the past couple weeks before because of overdose,” said Greg King, “but I think he was found and rushed back to the emergency room where they tried resuscitating him because of a massive heart attack from an overdose again.”
Greg King said doctors declared Alex legally dead Tuesday, April 23, and the family will have a final viewing online today. Medical staff are now running tests to determine if Alex’s organs can be donated because he is listed as an organ donor on his Florida driver’s license.
Greg said Alex has been living in Missoula for the past several years and has been struggling with drug addiction for much longer than that. His uncle said the last time he saw Alex in person was about five years ago when he was in Pensacola.
Greg encouraged him to enter the drug rehabilitation program at Waterfront Rescue Mission, but Alex had a hard time adjusting to a program or any situation where he felt confined, he said.
His uncle believes it was Alex’s time behind bars for his role in the death of his father, Terry King, that played a role in the young man’s overall struggle to live a normal life.
“He spent three days at my house, and I got him to go to the Waterfront Mission for a few days to try to get him a place to stay and all that, where he could be self-reliant,” said King. “But he didn’t even carry an ID. He wanted just the clothes on his back and to hitchhike. He really wasn’t even at a place where he could relate to people that worked and had a house. He told me this because of being locked up for seven years.”
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