Trial to Begin in Lawrence King Murder

Brandon McInerney, 17, will go on trial this week for the 2008 shooting death of Lawrence King, a younger classmate in California who the defendant believed had a crush on him.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Prosecutor Maeve Fox says she will outline a straightforward case in opening arguments set to begin Tuesday in a Chatsworth courtroom. The Oxnard teenager carefully planned and carried out the Feb. 12, 2008, execution of his eighth-grade classmate, she said. He brought a gun to school, positioned himself directly behind King during a morning computer class and fired twice into the back of the 15-year-old's head."

McInerney, who was 14 at the time of the murder, will be tried as an adult for the crime that occurred in front of other students and a teacher. The charges include a hate-crime allegation based on his reported neo-Nazi sympathies. He faces 53 years to life if convicted.

The Times reports that lawyers for McInerney will argue that the killing was voluntary manslaughter because their client was humiliated by King's sexual advances. A voluntary manslaughter conviction would prevent a life sentence.