Prosecutor Tells the Jury Teen plotted gay classmate's death

   GREG RISLINGAssociated Press   ap.cjonline.com

LOS ANGELES — A teen who gunned down a gay classmate in school should be convicted of murder because he rode a tidal wave of hatred and sought revenge after the victim offended him by simply saying, "What's up baby?," a prosecutor said Thursday.

Calling the shooting of 15-year-old Larry King a "shocking and unforgettable murder," Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox implored jurors to find Brandon McInerney guilty of first-degree murder, the severest penalty he faces.

Using McInerney's own words via an interview with a psychologist, Fox said during closing arguments that the teen became enraged after Larry passed him in the hallway in February 2008 and made what he believed was the ultimate insult.

McInerney, then 14, made a conscious decision to kill King the next day, telling a friend he planned to shoot his classmate, she said. He hid a gun in his backpack and brought it to E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, where he shot King twice in the back of the head, a "cold-blooded execution," the prosecutor said.

"He intentionally got that gun; he told people what he was going to do," Fox said. "He shot and killed an innocent person."

The brazen shooting in front of stunned classmates in a computer classroom gained wide attention when authorities dubbed it a hate crime because King was gay and evidence suggested McInerney had white supremacy leanings. Extensive news coverage persuaded a judge to move the case from Ventura County to neighboring Los Angeles County.

McInerney has pleaded not guilty to one count each of murder and a hate crime. If convicted, he faces more than 50 years in prison. Jurors also can consider a conviction of voluntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum 21-year term.

Defense attorneys do not deny McInerney killed King, but they contend their client came from a violent upbringing. They say he snapped when he heard moments before the shooting that King wanted to change his first name to Latisha.

In his closing argument, lawyer Scott Wippert said his client and King were a lot alike, coming from broken homes. McInerney didn't have problems with King until he started wearing makeup, high heels and began sexually harassing him, said Wippert who blamed school administrators for not addressing the simmering feud.

"We're not saying Larry King is a terror, a bad kid, but the adults should have stopped this behavior," Wippert said.

Fox said jurors should not support the defense's "smoke screen" to show the slaying was a result of "gay panic" — where someone like McInerney commits a violent act against a gay person for allegedly making unwanted sexual advances. She said it wasn't plausible that McInerney snapped because he told at least six people in the days before the shooting he was going to hurt King.

To believe a gay panic defense, all "reason and judgment goes out the window, and the only possible solution is extermination," Fox said. "Do not get sucked into this lie."

California legislators passed a law to blunt the use of that defense strategy in 2006. Fox planned to invoke the law but she said state jury instructions don't allow bias for King or McInerney based on their gender or sexual orientation.

Wippert scoffed at the notion he has used that approach to get a less severe conviction. He said Fox has used scare tactics to portray McInerney as a hate-mongering monster.

"This isn't a gay panic defense. This is a 14-year-old boy who was sexually harassed," Wippert said. "We haven't assassinated anyone's character."

In her arguments that the slaying was premeditated, Fox said one student testified she overheard McInerney say he was going to shoot King four days before it occurred. She said McInerney believed most of the school didn't like King and killing him would make him a hero.

"He thought he was doing everyone a favor," she said.

Fox also pointed out McInerney's actions in the hours and minutes leading up to the shooting: Nearly forgetting to grab the .22-caliber handgun from his house, hiding it in his backpack and then contemplating not shooting King.

She said all of those factors, told to the psychologist, show McInerney did not kill King in the heat of passion, which is required for a voluntary manslaughter conviction.

"It's stunning in its clarity," she said. "He's completely aware of what he did."

Closing arguments for the defense were expected to resume Friday.