Teen Blames Pro Wrestling for Death

Tuesday, January 16th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MIAMI (AP) â€” A teen-ager who says he accidentally killed a 6-year-old girl while imitating pro wrestlers kicked and slugged her repeatedly, inflicting injuries more severe than those seen in many car crashes, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Lionel Tate, 13, smashed Tiffany Eunick's skull, pulverized her liver, broke a rib and caused numerous cuts and bruises, prosecutor Ken Padowitz said in opening statements at Tate's first-degree murder trial.

``Tiffany Eunick was beaten to death,'' Padowitz told the jury.

Tate, who was 12 at the time and weighed 170 pounds, is being tried as an adult and faces a mandatory 25-year sentence with no parole if convicted.

Defense attorney Jim Lewis said the 1999 death was an accident.

``Lionel didn't understand that he could hurt the 48-pound girl if he punched her and threw her because he had seen pro wrestlers do that hundreds of times without injuring each other,'' said Lewis ``This was child's play and unfortunately child's play is sometimes dangerous.''

Lewis, who has said before that Lionel has the intelligence of an 8-year-old, tried unsuccessfully to force wrestling stars such as The Rock Johnson and Hulk Hogan to testify. The World Wrestling Federation is suing Lewis for libel for linking the girl's death to pro wrestling.

The death was one of at least four cases in 1999 in which pro wrestling was blamed after one child killed another.

Tate at first told police he and Tiffany had been playing and watching television. He said he picked Tiffany up and accidentally hit her head against a table. But prosecutors said the autopsy report was at odds with Tate's version.