AP News, March 14th, 2007
A 15-year-old boy was arrested in the shooting deaths Wednesday of his parents and a 16-year-old friend in what may have been a conspiracy between the teens to kill the couple, authorities said.
The 15-year-old was arrested and booked on three counts of first-degree murder. He initially told investigators that the older teen was an intruder who shot the parents while they were sleeping, and that he shot the boy after hearing the shots that killed his parents.
"Later in the morning however, the youth changed his statement to reveal an alleged conspiracy between the two teens to kill the couple," the Concordia Parish Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
The slain teen's family strongly disputed that he may have been involved, and said the youth in custody was probably responsible for all three deaths.
The sheriff's office identified the dead couple as John Wood, 42, and Jerri Wood, 40. Police did not release the names of the teens, but Lanie Whittington, an uncle of the slain boy, identified the 16-year-old as Matt Whittington, a student at a private school in nearby Natchez, Miss., and a friend of the Woods' son.
"We believe that Matthew was as much a victim as the parents were. We believe he was lured to that house," Lanie Whittington said.
The shootings happened in a quiet middle-class subdivision of Ferriday, a town of about 3,700 people most notable for its proximity to the historic river town of Natchez, and for four of its celebrity native sons: evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, the late broadcast journalist Howard K. Smith and entertainers Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley.
