GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) -- On the afternoon nine-year-old Connor Verkerke was killed, his accused assailant hid a knife in the sand of a Kentwood playground and patiently waited to strike, the assistant prosecutor said in opening statement's today.
"When Connor turns his back on the defendant, he comes at him with this knife, stabs him three times in the back and once in the arm,'' Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Bramble told jurors assembled for the felony murder trial of 13-year-old Jamarion Lawhorn.
The stabbing took place Aug. 4, 2014 at a playground at Pinewood Village mobile home park after Verkerke fell off a slide. Prosecutors contend Lawhorn, then 12, had been planning to kill someone for more than a year.
Lawhorn approached Verkerke and other children earlier that day asking if he could play with them. The boys decided to go to the playground that afternoon while Connor's mother prepared dinner for the family of six.
Within 15 minutes, Connor, assisted by his younger brother Kameron, made it home to the porch and collapsed.
"I was getting dinner ready and talking to my husband about my day; Kameron came up and said someone had killed Connor,'' the boys' mother, Danielle Lynn Verkerke, testified. "I couldn't wrap my head around it.
"Connor was laying there, there was blood everywhere,'' she said through tears. "There was blood coming out of his mouth like a river.''
As Connor Verkerke lay dying in his parent's arms, Lawhorn calmly walked up to two neighbors and asked to borrow a cell phone.
"He (Lawhorn) said he did it and he wanted to die,'' testified Heidi Anne Shepard, who lives across the street from the Verkerkes.
Police and medical units soon arrived and the boy seemed disappointed police initially passed him by.
"He said 'I'm right here come get me,''' testified Shepard's husband, Ryan. "At the time he seemed upset the officers had passed him by.''
Jamarion walked towards police with his arms out, neighbor Nancy Bishop testified. "I heard him say 'I can't take it anymore.' He walked straight with his arms out.''
Lawhorn's actions – from hiding the knife in the sand to calmly approaching police, indicate a boy who'd carefully thought out his actions, Bramble told jurors in asking for a guilty verdict.
Amid the chaos, Lawhorn borrows a cellphone and calls 911, where can be heard telling the dispatcher he just stabbed someone. He says he's "fed up with life'' before calmly spelling his name.
"Hurry up and come kill me or take me to jail or something,'' he says on the 911 call played for jurors. Give me the electric chair. I don't care how I die.'' Police recovered the knife in a grass strip within sight of where the 911 call was made.
Defense attorney Charles Boekeloo is not disputing the facts of the stabbing, but said Lawhorn is a troubled young man conditioned by years of abuse and neglect. As such, the boy should not be held criminally responsible for his actions, Boekeloo contends.
"He was abused and neglected almost his entire life,'' Boekeloo told jurors in opening statements. "He was beaten often with an extension cord, whipped with a belt. He tells people 'I'm bad. I'm a bad person.
"No child should go through this without help from a professional,'' Boekeloo added. "He'd get in trouble in school; he set fire to a bed in his home. And was anything done? No.''
Jamarion went to live with his father in New York and returned in 2014, but his troubled home life continued, Boekeloo said. "He came back and it was a repeat of before. He said he'd stab someone so they'll put me in the electric chair. That is where this young man was in his life.''
The trial before Kent County Circuit Court Judge Paul Denenfeld got underway Monday with jury selection. Lawhorn is charged as an adult with felony murder. He's been held at Kent County's juvenile detention facility since his arrest last August.
In December, a state psychiatrist determined that Lawhorn understands the charges against him and can assist in his defense. That prompted Boekeloo, the defense attorney, to ask for a second, independent evaluation.
That evaluation came back in February, concluding Lawhorn is unable to assist in his own defense.
After listening to testimony from both sides, Denenfeld in May ruled Lawhorn was competent to stand trial and assist in his defense.
If found guilty of murder, Lawhorn would be held in a juvenile facility until he's 21. He could then be released or sent to an adult prison.
Testimony will resume Wednesday. The trial is expected to last all week.
