Boston-area teen Ernest Watkins charged in fatal stabbing DORCHESTER, Mass., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A Boston-area 14-year-old who is hard of hearing has been charged in a brutal slaying after what police said was a botched robbery attempt. Ernest Watkins IV -- an eighth-grade student at College Bound Dorchester alternative middle-school program in Dorchester, Mass. -- was charged Monday with "delinquency to wit murder" and will be tried as an adult, the Boston Herald reported. Prosecutors allege Watkins and several other as-yet unidentified teens accosted Cherby LaJoie, 39, Oct. 6. When LaJoie resisted the robbery attempt, his assailants stabbed him 37 times in the head and chest. LaJoie died at the scene, police said. A friend identified Watkins as the person seen wearing a distinctive green and white shirt on security video footage captured from a nearby subway station, and a key found at the scene of the killing matched Watkins' front door, police said. Watkins' lawyer Janice Bassil said her client has never been in trouble before and is "baffled" at the charge. Bassil said she believes it is a case of mistaken identity.