Victim was beheaded, jury is told
The accused killer of Nathan Allen Pratt cut off the teenager's head and removed his teeth to prevent authorities from identifying his body, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.
Warren Diepraam made this charge in his opening statement in the capital murder trial of Nathan Neil McKinney, 20, accused of kidnapping and killing Pratt, 17, with a shotgun April 8, 2001.
McKinney's attorney, Connie Williams, did not make an opening statement.
In his confession read in court, McKinney admitted shoving Pratt into a car driven by McKinney's girlfriend and taking him to a wooded area on Burnham Woods, north of Bush Intercontinental Airport. But he said someone else fired the shots.
According to the confession, the defendant told sheriff's Detective W. Kuhlman that Pratt had bought 60 Ecstasy pills from McKinney with $1,000 worth of counterfeit $20 bills the day before the killing.
When he told his dealer that Pratt had cheated him, McKinney said, the dealer showed him a shotgun and a pistol and told him to bring Pratt to the woods.
Diepraam told the jury in state District Judge Caprice Cosper's court that McKinney hatched the kidnapping plan with the help of his girlfriend, Michelle Parson, and persuaded others to lure Pratt from a party at a house in Spring.
Parson, 19, is charged with aggravated kidnapping. She led authorities to Pratt's body about three weeks after the killing.
"He (McKinney) was so cold and noncaring," Diepraam said, "that two days later, when the family files a missing-person report ... he goes back to the body, cuts off the head and pulls out the teeth so he can't be identified."
The victim's mother, Bobbie Pratt, testified that her son was outgoing and did well in school until age 11, when his best friend committed suicide and he began a downward spiral.
She found him smoking marijuana at 14, she said, and, despite her efforts to intervene, he continued to use drugs.
He had gone to the party against her wishes, she said
The accused killer of Nathan Allen Pratt cut off the teenager's head and removed his teeth to prevent authorities from identifying his body, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.
Warren Diepraam made this charge in his opening statement in the capital murder trial of Nathan Neil McKinney, 20, accused of kidnapping and killing Pratt, 17, with a shotgun April 8, 2001.
McKinney's attorney, Connie Williams, did not make an opening statement.
In his confession read in court, McKinney admitted shoving Pratt into a car driven by McKinney's girlfriend and taking him to a wooded area on Burnham Woods, north of Bush Intercontinental Airport. But he said someone else fired the shots.
According to the confession, the defendant told sheriff's Detective W. Kuhlman that Pratt had bought 60 Ecstasy pills from McKinney with $1,000 worth of counterfeit $20 bills the day before the killing.
When he told his dealer that Pratt had cheated him, McKinney said, the dealer showed him a shotgun and a pistol and told him to bring Pratt to the woods.
Diepraam told the jury in state District Judge Caprice Cosper's court that McKinney hatched the kidnapping plan with the help of his girlfriend, Michelle Parson, and persuaded others to lure Pratt from a party at a house in Spring.
Parson, 19, is charged with aggravated kidnapping. She led authorities to Pratt's body about three weeks after the killing.
"He (McKinney) was so cold and noncaring," Diepraam said, "that two days later, when the family files a missing-person report ... he goes back to the body, cuts off the head and pulls out the teeth so he can't be identified."
The victim's mother, Bobbie Pratt, testified that her son was outgoing and did well in school until age 11, when his best friend committed suicide and he began a downward spiral.
She found him smoking marijuana at 14, she said, and, despite her efforts to intervene, he continued to use drugs.
He had gone to the party against her wishes, she said
