Florida

Teen denies he, brother killed father

A 13-year-old boy took the witness stand Wednesday and calmly denied that he and his brother killed their father with a baseball bat last fall.

Alex King’s testimony came only a few hours after prosecutors played a tape-recorded statement in which he confessed to police. But Alex, with choirboy looks and undersize for his age, told jurors that a family friend he had once loved emotionally and sexually committed the murder.

“He told us that there had been a fight,” Alex testified. “He said he had killed my dad to protect us.”

Alex gave similar testimony against the man, Ricky Chavis, at Chavis’ trial last week. Chavis, 40, was tried for the same crime before a different jury, but the verdict will remain sealed until the boys’ trial is over.

Alex and Derek King are being tried as adults. Each would receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of killing Terry King, 40.

Rhode Island

Lead paint trial first of its kind

Lead paint still sickens children every day, nearly a quarter of a century after it was banned, state lawyers told a jury Wednesday at the start of a landmark trial against eight former manufacturers.

The lawsuit brought by Rhode Island marks the first attempt by a state to hold makers of lead paint accountable for decades of lead poisoning in youngsters. A verdict against the companies ultimately could cost them millions and lead to more lawsuits.

Lead paint was banned in 1978, after studies showed it can cause brain damage and even death in youngsters who eat or inhale paint chips or dust.

The paint remains on about 331,000 public and private properties in Rhode Island, according to state records.

The jury will decide whether lead paint is a public nuisance. If the state wins that round, the next phase will determine whether the companies must pay damages. State officials have not said how much they would seek.

Louisiana

Authorities release serial killer profile

The serial killer is likely white, socially inept with women and between 25 and 35 years old. He seems like a nice guy, doesn’t make much money and is strong enough to lift 175 pounds.

Authorities hope that profile will jog someone’s memory as they investigate the slayings of three Baton Rouge women, whose deaths within the past year have been linked by DNA evidence.

FBI experts and local police who created the profile released details in segments Tuesday and Wednesday, along with images of footprints the killer left behind. Police say the prints indicate he probably spent lots of time watching women, including the three victims, and at some point tried to approach them.

California

Neanderthal baby’s skeleton rediscovered

An anthropologist has found the nearly complete skeleton of a Neanderthal infant in a French museum, where it was filed away in a drawer and forgotten after its discovery 88 years ago.

The skeleton is of a child thought to be 4 months old or younger who died 40,300 years ago.

The find, detailed in today’s issue of the journal Nature, is important because it will allow scientists to further trace how Neanderthals developed, said Bruno Maureille of France’s Universite Bordeaux.

Only a few hundred sets of Neanderthal remains are known, and skeletons of juveniles are especially rare.

“It’s not like finding a Renoir, but it’s pretty important in terms of studying evolution,” said anthropologist Clark Howell of the University of California at Berkeley, who is unconnected with the find.