McInerney Fires Attorney - Hires Dream Team

Brandon McInerney, the 14-year old boy who shot and killed openly gay teen Larry King has fired his attorneys from the county Public Defender’s Office. It has been reported McInerney will now be represented by a group of high profile lawyers from Los Angeles.

Kevin McGee, a Ventura County Superior Court Judge approved the change after a private meeting between the Public Defender’s Office and United Defense Group of Studio City.

McGee stated he determined McInerney understood the implications of the charges against him and had not been coerced into making the legal change.

United Defense Group has not publicized if it will take the case pro-bono or who will pay for the expert witnesses they are expected to call for testimony during the trial.

McInerney is being charged as an adult with murder as a hate crime and could be sentenced to 51 years to life if convicted.

Two weeks ago, Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox said that white supremacist materials were found in McInerney’s bedroom.

“They included hand-drawn sketches of swastikas, references to the ‘14 Words’ and the number 88, which is commonly used by skinheads to represent the words Heil Hitler and Hitler’s SS,” Fox said in a court filing.

14 Year-Old Murderer Pleads “Not Guilty”

The 14-year-old who shot and killed classmate, Larry King, point blank, in front of a whole class of peers plead not guilty Thursday as his trial got underway in California.

Brandon McInerney is being tried as an adult in a Ventura County Court Judge and could face life in prison even though LGBT activists had urged that the boy be dealt with by a juvenile court.

Thursday, his defence lawyer said the decision to try him for murder and not manslaughter was effectively a “death sentence.”

As you may know, Lawrence King, the 15 year-old, who self-identified as gay and wore feminine clothing, was shot in the head on February 12th during a lesson, by McInerney, his classmate at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California.

The Executive Director of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) Kevin Jennings commented: As a nation, we’ve had our heads in the sand for far too long. We need to do everything we can to prevent something like this from happening again.”

Mixed views have poured in as to the fate of the killer, but most agree, an example of “Zero Tolerance” for hate crimes must be set in order to help prevent future killings.  

You may also remember Angie Zapata, who was beat to death by a man who “snapped” after discovering that Zapata was actually a male.

Attorney Defends Point Blank School Shooting

A lawyer for an Oxnard middle school student charged with killing gay classmate Lawrence King said Friday that he wants to get the case in front of a jury quickly now that a Ventura County judge has turned down his request to move it to juvenile court.

Deputy public defender Willie Quest said he was disappointed by Superior Court Judge Douglas Daily’s finding earlier this week that there was no constitutional violation in Dist. Atty. Gregory Totten’s decision to try Brandon McInerney, 14, as an adult.

“We hope a jury will look at it in a much more reasonable light,” Quest said. “I’m not going to allow a 14-year-old to go to prison for the rest of his life without someone other than the D.A.’s office looking at this.”

This after the 14-year-old shot and killed Lawrence King point blank, in the head, during school in what has been determined a pre-meditated killing and hate crime.

Read more of this story at latimes.com or here at gayagenda.com.