May 23, 2013
A convicted child molester was acquitted in Pensacola on Wednesday. Ricky Chavis was charged with kidnapping and molesting the younger of two brothers, who admitted killing their sleeping father with a baseball bat.
After three hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Chavis of the lesser offense of false imprisonment, a third-degree felony. The judge sentenced him to the maximum of five years in prison.
Chavis was charged with having sex with Alex King, when the boy was 12 years old, in the months before the boy and his brother -- Derek -- killed their father. Thirteen-year-old Alex and his 14-year-old brother, Derek, testified against Chavis on Tuesday. But both also admitted lying under oath, in an attempt to frame him for the November 2001 murder of Terry King, in order to avoid mandatory life-without-parole sentences.
Last year, the King boys and 41-year-old Chavis were tried for first-degree murder. Alex is serving seven years and Derek eight years, in separate juvenile facilities.
