Boy Tells of Desire to Shoot His Father : Crime: Youth testifies that he had handled the gun used to kill his father almost daily. He said he would rather shoot his father than face further punishment.

A 14-year-old National City boy accused of murdering his father during an argument said Monday that he had talked before the incident about shooting his father rather than face further physical punishment.

The boy said that he had handled the gun used in the Oct. 28 shooting death almost every day.

During cross-examination before Juvenile Court Judge Federico Castro, the former seventh-grade student at Granger Junior High School testified that he had told his younger brother shortly before the incident that he would shoot the father, Lepolious Miller III, 36, if Miller threatened physical punishment.

“The next time he was going to jump on me, I said I was going to shoot him, but not that I was going to kill him,” said the boy, whose identity has been withheld.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carlos Armour asked if--as the boy was fetching the the .22-caliber pistol he had taken earlier from his grandmother’s room and hidden among his clothes--he planned to use the weapon against his father.

“To me it was like I wasn’t really going to do it,” the boy said. “I didn’t have no plan.”

The boy testified to walking outside the house briefly and loading a single chamber. Despite his younger brother’s pleas to put the gun away, the boy returned inside and confronted the father, he said.

“What was it you wanted him to do when you pointed the gun at him?” Armour asked the boy.

“Leave,” the boy responded.

Last week the boy testified that he had been beaten with regularity by Miller, who abused cocaine and marijuana, attorneys for both defense and prosecution said. A court restraining order against Miller had been issued in the summer of 1990, shortly before the boy’s grandparents petitioned for custody of the boy and his 12-year-old brother. In August, 1990, custody was awarded to the grandparents, Mildred and James Grier.

Defense attorney Barbara L. Davis called to the witness stand several family acquaintances and relatives, including the boy’s mother, who testified that Miller had abused his children.

“He had total control over the children,” said Marsha Watson, Miller’s ex-wife and the boy’s mother. “He would tell them to do something, and they would jump to it to avoid any further confrontation.”

However, her son also often failed to respond to orders, Watson said. Miller’s reaction to disobedience ranged from anger and verbal abuse to violence, Watson said. Several hours before the shooting, Miller spanked his son after finding out that the boy had withheld a school progress report that had a failing mark.

“He always threatened him, picked on him and slapped him,” Watson said.

When the boy was asked if he considered before the shooting that a single bullet wound could have taken his father’s life, the boy said: “It was like he was invincible. It was like he could take anything.”

Outside the courtroom, Armour said witnesses for the defense described shortcomings in the boy’s upbringing and were attempting to shift focus from the shooting to Miller’s failures as a parent.

“This is a kind of character assassination,” Armour said, “on a victim who is deceased and cannot defend himself. He (Miller) did not have the best parenting skills, and a lot of self-righteous people might criticize (the) dad’s behavior. But the issue in this case is what did (the) dad do when he was shot? He basically stood up and said, put the gun down.”

Under questioning, the boy testified about the verbal exchange with his father just before firing.

“I hate you, I hate you,” the boy recalled saying.

“Shoot me or put the gun down,” was the father’s response, according to the boy.

“If I put it down, you’ll beat me,” the boy said.

“You may be right,” Miller was quoted as saying.

The final witness, a psychologist who evaluated the boy, is scheduled to take the witness stand Wednesday.