King Family on Young Boys' Conviction

Sep. 10 -- Alex and Derek King, the 13- and 14-year-old boys convicted of second-degree murder last week for bludgeoning their father to death, spent much of their childhood without a stable home and family. Now they wait on what's left of their family to visit them in prison, which could be their home for the rest of their lives.

The boys' first post-conviction visit came Saturday. Their mother Janet French, a former nightclub dancer, didn't show, but their grandparents and aunt did and they shared their story with Molly Barrows of ABCNEWS' Pensacola, Fla., affiliate WEAR-TV.

Shannon Castro, the boys' aunt, says they didn't seem to understand that their life would never be the same.

Not Getting a Grasp

"I don't really think that they can grasp that the rest of your life, or 20 years of your life. I don't think 13- and 14-year-olds can think past next week, or next month, much less 20 years," Castro said.

The King brothers were tried as adults and faced mandatory life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder in the Nov. 26, 2001, slaying of their father, Terry King.

Instead, the jury found them guilty of second-degree murder. The boys are facing 22 years to life without parole, but the judge is allowed to go below the minimum when they are sentenced Oct.17. They could also face 30 years in prison for arson.

The boys initially confessed their involvement in the killing. In taped statements to police, both said they killed their father because they feared he would punish them for running away. Four months later, the boys recanted their confession and said Rick Chavis, a former family friend, was the real killer.

Chavis, 40, was also charged with the crime and went before a separate jury. The verdict for Chavis was sealed until after the jury in the boys' case reached a verdict.

Chavis, a convicted child molester who also allegedly engaged in underage sex with Alex (the younger brother), was acquitted of the murder charges.

The boys, who were bouncing and twirling in their chairs outside the jurors' presence during the trial, appeared shaken by the verdict. Derek bowed his head while Alex wiped away tears as his attorney put his arm around him.

The boys' grandmother, Linda Walker, says Alex, 13, seems to be handling everything better than Derek, 14, who fears he will be forgotten behind bars.

"Well, I told him [Alex] that we'd always be there for him and that things is gonna get better. He said, "Cool!" Just like a little kid would," she said.

‘Happy-Go-Lucky’

While Alex is a quiet child, said Walker, Derek is loving and "happy-go-lucky," she said. "You just have to know them, they're not them type of kids that could ever do any kind of killing," she said.

Walker says Derek was heartbroken that his mother didn't visit them over the weekend. Walker said she had been sick and had to get home. She said the first question he asked was: "Where's my mom?"

"When I told Janet what he said, what Derek said, she [French] just busted out crying over the telephone," Walker said. "She was so upset because she couldn't see them."

French has said that King sent the boys to a crisis home for children in 1994 because he could no longer support them. King and French never married, but lived together and had Alex and Derek together. The boys were sent to foster homes in 1995 and French moved out of King's place. Alex moved back in with King a month later while Derek stayed with his foster parents for six years. Derek's foster family returned him to King's home just last year.

Walker said the boys' mother, who left the courtroom in tears after the verdict, had problems with more than just finances when it came to the kids. "She went to a doctor and the doctor told her that ever since Alex's been born she had post partem depression and that — that has been a great impact in her life," Walker said.

But the family says French is ready to be a mother now. "She's a very changed person from what she used to be," Walker said. "People call her a lap dancer. She never was a lap dancer, she danced for a very short time and then she waitressed at the topless bars," she said.

Walker and Castro said they were shocked by the verdict. "I really didn't feel that they had the evidence, knowing that I know the boys were innocent, period," Castro said. "I got my hope, and I'm hoping that somebody will see that these kids were wrongly charged. They were wrongly charged and wrongly convicted," she said.

One Killing, Two Trials

The controversy surrounding these cases stemmed from the unusual possibility that both the King brothers and Chavis could have been convicted of the same crimes with two seemingly clashing theories

Chavis still faces trial next month on lewd and lascivious acts charges for his alleged sexual relationship with Alex.