By BILL KACZOR
The Associated Press
3/4/2004, 7:46 p.m. CT

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) -- A teenager who says he fatally stabbed his uncle in self-defense chose not to testify Thursday at his murder trial, which will go to the jury following closing arguments Friday.

The defense rested its case after introducing evidence designed to show that Daniel Carter, 16, was a victim of child abuse at the hands of his uncle, Jack Carter, 46, of Navarre, and that the youth used lethal force only to protect himself on the night of June 16, 2002.

Daniel is accused by prosecutors of premeditated first-degree murder and would receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted as charged.

The boy, then 15, claims his uncle broke through his bedroom door at his mother's home in the nearby Beulah community in a drunken and drug-induced rage and used his Kung Fu training to hit and kick him and threatened to tie him up and castrate him.

Although he did not testify, jurors Wednesday heard him say, in a taped interview with investigators a day after the killing, that he never intended to kill his uncle.

"I just wanted him to stop, and he wouldn't," Daniel said on the tape. "If I had known that I would have killed him, I would have just let him beat me."

Tom Brame, program coordinator for the 1st Circuit Juvenile Assessment Center, testified Daniel had a cut on his hand that was stitched up and red welts on his neck that appeared to be finger marks after the killing.

"He seemed to be sleepy and traumatized," Brame said. "He did not appear angry. ... He appeared to be pretty glazed over."

His testimony was introduced to rebut an Escambia County sheriff's investigator who told jurors that Daniel didn't seem too scared during subsequent questioning, but did appear angry because his uncle had broken his television set, stereo and video game equipment.

Dr. Michael Berkland, a former associate district medical examiner, testified for the defense that most of 10 knife cuts Jack Carter suffered were struggle or offensive wounds and few, if any, were defensive.

His testimony contradicted Dr. Gary Cumberland, his former boss, who had told the jury Tuesday that most of the wounds were defensive.

Cumberland resigned as chief district medical examiner last month while under fire for spending taxpayer dollars with his private pathology practice. Cumberland last year fired Berkland for failing to complete autopsy reports on time. The Medical Examiners Commission also scrutinized Cumberland for letting Berkland fall behind.

Circuit Judge Terry Terrell refused to let defense lawyer Patrece Cashwell introduce an assessment test Brame had done that showed Daniel scored low on anger and high on trauma.

Terrell also agreed with prosecutors and blocked another uncle, Dave Carter of Tyler, Texas, from testifying that his late brother had a violent streak and severely beat his dogs. He was allowed, however, to tell the jury that their mother often beat her children, including Jack Carter, to discipline them.

"That's the only thing he knew," Dave Carter testified after wiping tears from his eyes.