First Of Several Students Called As Witness Testifies That He Heard Brandon McInerney Discuss “Getting” Lawrence King; Medical Examiner Who Performed Autopsy And Investigating Detective Also Testify

The first of many E.O. Green School students expected to testify in the murder trial of Brandon McInerney took the stand Wednesday morning on the trial's second day, The Ventura County Star reporting that Cristian G. said that the day before the Feb. 12, 2008, classroom shooting of Larry King, 15, at the Oxnard school, he heard McInerney say to other students "they were going to get together one day after school and rush him or plot something against Larry" during a gym class. McInerney, 14 at the time and now 17, is charged with murder, and a hate crime in part because King was gay. Cristian, whose full name was not used in court because he is a minor, said people would call King derogatory names behind his back and talk about when he came to school wearing makeup or jewellery. Under cross-examination by defense attorney Scott Wippert, Cristian said McInerney was known to hang out with black students and play basketball with them. Prosecutors are trying to establish McInerney as a white supremacist. The trial is being held in a Chatsworth courtroom because of pre-trial publicity in Ventura County. Today started with testimony by Ventura County Chief Medical Examiner Ronald O'Halloran, who did the autopsy on King. He testified that two gunshots entered the back of King's head and lodged at the front of his skull. King had fingernail polish on his fingers and toes at the time of this death, O'Halloran said. A faint moustache was forming on the 15-year-old's body. King's mother left before the graphic testimony and accompanying photos were presented, and McInerney spent much of the time staring at his table and doodling. The crowd and media in the courtroom were much smaller than the packed house during opening statements Tuesday. The second witness this morning was retired Oxnard detective Joe Chase, an investigator in the case. He testified about the crime scene, including about finding the .22-caliber revolver used in the slaying. The gun was cocked when police found it, meaning it was ready to fire a third shot. There were four live bullets remaining in the gun. During cross-examination, Wippert asked Chase if it was possible that when the gun was dropped, it could have fallen on the hammer, cocking the weapon. "Anything is possible, but I would say no," he said. He later said the weapon was jammed and likely could not have fired a third shot. When Chase examined King's belongings in the classroom, he found schoolwork that had both "Larry King" and "Leticia" written on it. King had been asking some people to call him Leticia in the weeks before his death. Chase testified that King's backpack contained lipstick, makeup and a box of earrings with "From all of us, for Leticia" written on it. Wippert asked Chase to also go over the documents found in McInerney's backpack, which included Wikipedia articles on Adolph Hitler and his book, "Mein Kampf." Wippert said the students were doing a report and some, like McInerney, were focusing on Hitler. Prosecutors are trying to prove that McInerney was a white supremacist who disliked gays and committed premeditated murder, while Wippert is laying out a case that the teen was pushed to the edge when King made too many unwelcome sexual advances and is only guilty of manslaughter.