Joint Murder Trial Scheduled to Start

Opening statements in the trial of a 17-year-old Boston youth charged with fatally stabbing a man during a robbery when he was 14 is scheduled to get underway.

Jury selection in the joint murder trial of 17-year-old Ernest Watkins IV and 23-year-old Tarayiah Hunt was completed Thursday and opening statements in Suffolk Superior Court are expected Friday.

Watkins is charged with first-degree murder as an adult.

Prosecutors say Watkins and Hunt took part in the attack and stabbing of 39-year-old Cherby LaJoie on a Dorchester street in October 2012.

Authorities say LaJoie was killed when he resisted a robbery attempt.

Both suspects were tied to the stabbing by surveillance video. Both pleaded not guilty.

Their lawyers have said their arrests were a case of mistaken identity.