The Seattle Times Company Nation & World : Thursday, June 04, 1998 Teen blames demons, friends in slayings by Jay Hughes The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - A sobbing Luke Woodham claimed today he was under the spell of demons and influenced by an older youth the morning he allegedly plunged a butcher knife into his mother, then drove to school and killed two classmates. He blamed the demons on Grant Boyette, a 19-year-old who authorities claim headed a cult-like group of teenagers who had plotted to kill students at Pearl High School. "I remember I woke up that morning and I'd seen demons that I always saw when Grant told me to do something," Woodham, 17, told the jury. "They said I was nothing and I would never be anything if I didn't get to that school and kill those people." Woodham is on trial for killing 50-year-old Mary Woodham on Oct. 1, the same day he allegedly shot two classmates and wounded seven others at Pearl High School. He will be tried in Hattiesburg next week for the school shootings, which was the first of recent similar rampages around the country. Prosecutors rested their case yesterday; the defense opened its case today. Woodham, who broke down in tears under intense questioning from prosecutors about whether he had killed his mother, said he recalled getting a knife and a pillow and walking to his mother's room. He said he could hear Boyette's voice in his head. Woodham said he and Boyette became good friends in January 1997, after Boyette cast a spell from a satanic book. He claimed Boyette, who defense attorneys said may be called as a witness, had directed his activities and had assigned him demons to make sure he followed orders. If convicted of his mother's death, Woodham faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. That is also the maximum penalty he can receive if convicted in the school shootings.
