Once Boykin decided to argue self-defense, the government's evidence linking him to the shooting became less compelling. Boykin and his attorneys, Gladys Weatherspoon and Janet Mitchell of the D.C. Public Defender Service, conceded that he had shot and killed Richardson. That left the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen J. Pfleger and Catherine J. Motz, to prove why.
Prosecutors argued that Boykin went to school Feb. 2 with a plan to kill Richardson, who had had a run-in with a Barry Farm friend of Boykin's a few days earlier.
While attending the burial of another teenager last month, Michelle Richardson-Patterson visited the cemetery where her son, James Richardson, is buried.
(Carol Guzy -- The Washington Post)
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_____Ballou Slaying_____
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Slaying Defendant 'Panicked' (The Washington Post, Dec 7, 2004)
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Ballou Shooting Was in Self-Defense, Lawyer Says (The Washington Post, Dec 1, 2004)
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Students, Leaders Talk Out Troubles at Ballou High (The Washington Post, Feb 22, 2004)
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Ballou Slaying Rooted In Territorial Rivalry (The Washington Post, Feb 9, 2004)
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Suspect, 18, Surrenders in Slaying at Ballou (The Washington Post, Feb 4, 2004)
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Teen's Dreams Lost to Lure of Streets (The Washington Post, Feb 3, 2004)
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But Boykin testified that he had no such plan. He said that many of the students from Barry Farm had been suspended after a melee in the cafeteria and that the few who remained at Ballou felt outnumbered and under threat. That was why Boykin and a couple of his friends had pitched in to buy a gun, he testified. And that was why, when the friend who had had the run-in told Boykin he was going to "wreck" Richardson, Boykin said he would be there to back him up.
The friend never came to school that day. But Boykin did, and that morning, he encountered Richardson. Prosecutors argued that Boykin and two friends had been prowling the halls, "hunting" for Richardson; defense attorneys said that Boykin and his Barry Farm friends were cutting class and roaming around to show off Boykin's new winter coat.
The two teenagers exchanged words. Richardson called Boykin "pretty," and Boykin punched him, sending Richardson to the ground.
A brawl broke out, and the brawnier Richardson was getting the better of Boykin, the defendant testified. He said he saw Richardson reaching for something and thought it was a gun or knife. Boykin said he reached into his coat pocket for his gun and ended up shooting himself in the leg. But he didn't realize he had shot himself and thought someone else was shooting, he testified.
"I panicked," he told the jury. "I turned around and started shooting. I wanted to get out of there."
He fled and said he learned later that Richardson had died. He surrendered the next day and has been jailed ever since.
Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
At a luncheon with Washington Post reporters and editors, new D.C. Superintendent Clifford B. Janey outlined his position on key issues regarding the troubled system: