Teen Guilty in Death of Youth in Missouri

A Granada Hills teenager was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday for killing a classmate at a Baptist boarding school for troubled youths in Missouri.

Joseph Stanley Burris, 16, was the second teenager to stand trial in the March 25, 1996, slaying of William Futrelle, 16, of Boca Raton, Fla., at the Mountain Park Baptist Church and Boarding Academy in the town of Patterson, about 110 miles south of St. Louis.

Prosecutors alleged in separate trials that Burris and another youth, Anthony Rutherford, lured Futrelle to a wooded area of the campus where they killed him because they feared he would expose their plot to take over the school and start a Branch-Davidian-like cult.

The jury recommended that Burris, who was tried as an adult, be sentenced to life in prison without parole on the first-degree murder charge, and 50 years in prison for armed criminal assault. No date was set for formal sentencing.

In June, a judge sentenced Rutherford, 19, of Siloam Springs, Ark., to life in prison without parole for his role in Futrelle’s slaying. A 15-year-old who was present during the killing was committed to a juvenile detention facility until he turns 18, for concealing the crime.

Futrelle’s mother, sister and two aunts wept quietly as the verdict was read Thursday evening. “Justice has been served,” said his mother, Billie, afterward.

During the trial, prosecutors played a videotape recorded just hours after the murder in which Burris confessed to killing his classmate because he feared Futrelle would not go along with a plan to take over the boarding school, which has 145 students, only 30 of whom are boys.

Wayne County Prosecutor Jon A. Kiser contended that Burris was competent when he killed Futrelle, whose throat was slit during the attack. Defense attorney James Bowles had sought to portray Burris as a troubled boy who spiraled into depression following the death of his father when the child was 12.

“At 12 1/2, an otherwise good boy, an all-American boy, began his descent into madness,” Bowles said in his closing argument.

Associated Press also contributed to this story.