Teen guilty of murdering De La Salle star

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/11/6 | Jim Herron Zamora

[SmithL]

A Contra Costa County jury today found 17-year-old Darren Pratcher guilty of first-degree murder in the 2004 slaying of former De La Salle High School football star Terrance Kelly on a Richmond street.

The jury came to the decision after deliberating for more than a week in a trial that began Aug. 23.

As the verdict was read this afternoon, Pratcher put both hands over eyes, cast his head down and shook it from side to side. His brother, Larry Pratcher Jr., was ejected from the court room after issuing a string of obscenities.

Kelly's family nodded and clapped, and the victim's father, Landrin Kelly, hugged his wife.

Muriel Pratcher, Pratcher's mother, cried when the verdict was announced, saying, "Oh my God."

"It was a no-win situation," Bernice Moore, Pratcher's grandmother, said outside the courtroom. "I lost my grandson to prison, Mr. Kelly lost his son forever. We both lost. It's just a tragedy."

During the trial, Pratcher's own attorney admitted that the young man fired the four rifle shots that killed Kelly on Aug. 12, 2004 -- two days before the football player was scheduled to move to the University of Oregon on a sports scholarship.

[SmithL]

Terrance Kelly

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Darren Pratcher