Court Hears Teen Tell of School Killings

A Mississippi teenager on trial for killing two schoolmates and wounding seven others testified Thursday that worshiping Satan gave him power to control other people.

“I’ve broken up people. I’ve ruined relationships,” said Luke Woodham, 17. “I know what I was dealing with was real.”

Woodham sobbed earlier in the day when prosecutors showed a videotaped confession he made to police an hour after the Oct. 1 shooting rampage.

Woodham is on trial for killing his former girlfriend, Christina Menefee, 16, and classmate Lydia Dew, 17. Seven other students who were shot survived the attack.

“I just wanted to kill her,” Woodham said in the confession. “I was still in love with her. She was always flirting with other guys.”

The prosecution concluded its case Thursday. The defense, which told the jury in its opening statement that Woodham was innocent by reason of insanity, called psychiatrist Mick Jepson of Santa Fe, N.M., who said in his opinion Woodham is mentally ill.

The last witness of the day was Woodham, who was on the witness stand 20 minutes before the court recessed. His testimony will resume today.

When asked by his attorney whether he would deny the school shooting, Woodham said, “I don’t deny my actions.”

The boy said he had met an older teenager, Grant Boyette, 19, “just after I lost Christina. Grant told me, ‘I worship Satan, and Satan has chosen you to be part of my group.’ ”

“He said I had potential to do something great,” the boy testified.

He said worshiping Satan gave him strong powers that allowed him to control people and that Boyette, who faces charges of being an accessory to murder but has not yet been tried, gave him a pentagon to put on his forehead when casting spells.

“Magic and being part of Grant’s group made me feel like I had complete control and power over a lot of things,” the boy said.

In the videotape shown to the jury earlier in the day, Woodham denied being insane.

“It’s like I was there, but I wasn’t there,” Woodham said on the videotape. “I’m not insane, I just did it. I went up to Christina and I shot her, then I shot Lydia, then I just shot into the crowd. I don’t know why I killed Lydia.”

The murder trial is the second for the boy, convicted last week of killing his mother, Mary Woodham, 50, with a butcher knife.