Knoxville (WVLT) - With Eric Boyd's fate in the hands of a jury, his family decides to speak out about their brother who's behind bars and charged as an accessory to murder in the deadly carjacking.

Anthony Boyd tells Volunteer TV Eric just got mixed up with the wrong crowd, and he's innocent.

Anthony Boyd led his family in prayer before Anthony spoke Tuesday night for the first time about the accusations against his younger brother. Anthony says his brother Eric is a victim of circumstance.

"He didn't actually kill nobody. He's just there basically at the wrong time. He didn't know these guys," Boyd said.

Anthony says Eric Boyd only knew these guys from basketball games, even though Eric admitted in a taped interview to smoking marijuana with the Lamaricus Davidson.
Then Anthony asked the media to put themselves in his brother's shoes, saying his brother found out about the crime afterwards and told police as soon as he could.

"Put yourself in that position. Would you save your life first then tell or tell then get killed?" Boyd said.

Then there's the issue of Daphne Sutton, Lemaricus Davidson's girlfriend who spent the night with Davidson hours after the crime. Defense attorney Phil Lemonico filed a motion and delivered testimony at trial asking why Daphne Sutton wasn't prosecuted.

"I'm not bringing up race or nothing, but it also was a white girl involved in this case that media knew it, everybody knew it that ain't in jail. My brother's in jail, she's not," Boyd said.

Eric Boyd is in jail, and jury deliberations begin Wednesday. We'll find out soon if the jury agrees with Anthony Boyd.

Daphne Sutton has not ben charged with any crime.

NAACP Knoxville Chapter President Ezra Maize attended Anthony Boyd's speech. He didn't talk on camera, but Volunteer TV News called him tonight.
Reverend Maize says he was there only to listen. He says the NAACP is not taking a position on this issue yet.