Chavis Indicted for King Murder

By Ginny Graybiel
Originally published in The Pensacola News Journal, April 12, 2002

Ricky Marvin Chavis, 40, was indicted today in the death of Terry King on Nov. 26. King was beaten to death with a baseball bat at his home in Cantonment.

In addition to first-degree murder, Chavis also is charged with arson and lewd or lascivious sexual battery.

Chavis previously was accused of assisting 12-year-old Alex King and his 13-year-old brother, Derek, after the death of their father. The children are charged with first-degree murder and arson.

He already was being held in the Escambia County Jail on charges of accessory after the fact and tampering with evidence.

Those charges came about after he admitted that he harbored the boys for nearly two days after the slaying.

In confessions to Escambia County sheriff's officers, Derek King said he beat his father to death with a baseball bat, and Alex King said he came up with the idea. The boys also said they set their father's house on fire.

Chavis previously has denied any involvement or advance knowledge of the slaying. He characterized himself as a friend of Terry King's but also said that King was mentally abusing the children.

Alex King's lawyer, James Stokes, has alleged that Chavis was the child's "adult lover."

Chavis recently has been accused of writing a love note to Alex on an M.C. Blanchard Judicial Building. The child never saw the note.