Lionel Tate

Fourteen-year-old Nathaniel Brazill wore a shirt and tie for his trial for the shooting death of his middle school teacher. His muted green dress shirt was so new it stood stiffly away from his chest, the creases from packaging visible as he rose Wednesday to face the jurors who declared him guilty of the adult crime of second-degree murder. Brazill now awaits sentencing and could serve as long as life in prison.

Two teenage boys who bludgeoned their father to death with a baseball bat pleaded guilty Thursday to reduced charges and got up to eight years in prison after a judge threw out their convictions, sparing them a much harsher sentence. In strong, clear voices, Derek King, 14, and his brother, Alex, 13, admitted to third-degree murder and arson; they burned down the house around their father's body last year.

One of the youngest defendants to face an adult murder trial in Florida has an unusual defense in the beating death of a 6-year-old family friend: Pro wrestling made him do it. Nobody disputes that Lionel Tate, 12 at the time, smashed in Tiffany Eunick's skull. But the boy's attorney contends it was an accident that resulted from an intellectually immature youth imitating the wrestlers he watched on television. The World Wrestling Federation is suing the lawyer for libel.

For the second time this year, Florida has put a teenage boy on trial for first-degree murder. The 14-year-old is accused of shooting an English teacher who was about to flunk him. Prosecutors said Nathaniel Brazill, a former honor roll student, decided to kill Barry Grunow, 35, on the last day of school because Brazill was about to get a failing grade.

A 14-year-old boy, convicted of murdering his favorite teacher by shooting him between the eyes, was sentenced to 28 years in prison Friday after the judge rejected the prosecution's argument that he is not redeemable and should be locked up for life. Nathaniel Brazill stood impassively in a red jail uniform, his legs in shackles, as the sentence was pronounced.

While supper was cooking Monday night, police here say, a boy strangled Amy Yates with his bare hands, leaving her body in the tall weeds of an empty lot. On Wednesday, residents of this conservative, rural area just east of the Alabama border expressed horror at what had happened. "He seemed like a normal kid to begin with, but it turns out he's a monster," Tim Yates, Amy's uncle, said. "He's a monster." The boy, whose name was not released, is being held in a youth facility.

A judge on Thursday threw out the adult murder convictions of two Florida boys, found guilty in the beating death of their father with a baseball bat when they were 12 and 13. Circuit Judge Frank Bell in Pensacola said prosecutors violated the boys' rights by arguing two contradictory theories of the slaying at the same time, calling the tactic "unusual and bizarre."

Did a 12-year-old boy murder his younger playmate in what prosecutors have termed "a brutal, savage beating"? Or did Tiffany Eunick die accidentally as she and Lionel Tate imitated what he had seen his muscled heroes do on TV? Those are the questions that a jury will begin to weigh today in a first-degree murder trial that has gained national attention because of the age of the accused--now 13--and his novel defense.

Rejecting a "blame pro wrestling" defense, a jury Thursday found a 13-year-old guilty of murder in the beating death of his young playmate. Lionel Tate is believed to be the youngest person in Florida history--and one of the youngest in the nation--ever convicted of homicide in an adult court. He could face life behind bars. The defense had contended the boy simply was imitating the violent moves he had seen his wrestling heroes perform on television and had not intended to hurt anyone.

A jury convicted a 14-year-old Wednesday of walking into his school with a pistol and murdering his English teacher by shooting him between the eyes, a verdict that could send the boy to prison for the rest of his life. The nine-woman, three-man Palm Beach County jury, however, balked at the finding of first-degree murder sought by prosecutors, which would have meant mandatory life imprisonment with no chance of parole.