Prosecutor Says Murder Of 15 Year Old Lawrence King Carefully Planned By Accused Brandon McInerney; Maeve Fox Adds That For First Time Larry King “Wasn’t Taking It Anymore;” McInerney’s Older Brother Banned From Trial Unless Called As Witness For Speaking To Jurors Outside Courtroom

An Oxnard, California student carefully planned and carried out the execution of a 15 year old gay classmate because of his ongoing feud with the victim and his white supremacist belief that homosexuality is an abomination, a Ventura County prosecutor said Tuesday, The Los Angeles Times reports. Brandon McInerney, now 17, is charged with the 2008 murder of Lawrence King in a high-profile case that has rallied the gay community and triggered calls for greater protections of young homosexuals on school campuses. King was bullied by McInerney and other boys at the school, Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox said in her opening statement in the trial, which is being conducted at a courthouse in Chatsworth. But shortly before his death, King had begun wearing high heels, makeup and earrings to school and had become more confident in himself, she said. “Larry King for the first time in his life wasn’t taking it anymore,” Fox said. “And he started to give people what I prefer to call the proverbial chin. Only it was more profane. The proverbial ‘fuck you.’” The day before King was shot, the two boys had been bickering in an eighth-grade science class, she said. When King got up to get a drink of water, “Brandon said ‘I am going to shoot him.’ And this is what a student will testify to.” The next day McInerney pulled a .22-caliber handgun out of his backpack and shot King in the head, authorities have said. Before Tuesday’s hearing, McInerney’s older brother, James Bing, 25, told jurors outside the courtroom that “the fate of my brother is in your hands.” Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell banished Bing from the courthouse for the duration of the trial, unless he is called as a witness. “This is so obviously inappropriate,” Campbell said. “He is forbidden from attending this proceeding, until he is actually called for testimony.” Prosecutors have added a hate crime allegation, arguing that McInerney's actions were spurred in part by a hatred of gays, in line with his alleged neo-Nazi sympathies. If convicted, he faces 53 years to life in prison. McInerney is being tried as an adult court under the provisions of Proposition 21, which allows prosecutors to bring murder charges against juveniles as young as 14 for certain serious crimes. McInerney's lawyers, Scott Wippert and Robyn Bramson, say their client does not deny the killing, but argue it was voluntary manslaughter because the adolescent was provoked by King's repeated sexual advances. Fellow students say the two had clashed for days over King's expressing his attraction to McInerney. McInerney was humiliated by King's advances, his attorneys said. He came from a violent home and decided to end his misery in a way that made sense to him -- with a gun. King was living in a children's shelter at the time because of problems at home. A voluntary manslaughter conviction would prevent a life sentence, making McInerney eligible for release before he's 40, his lawyers said. A finding of second-degree murder would virtually assure that he wouldn't be eligible for parole until he was in his 70s.