Defendant in Transgender Killing Testifies

[deadparrot]

HAYWARD, Calif. - A man charged with murdering a transgender teenager testified he felt betrayed and threw up after learning the fun, attractive girl with whom he had a sexual encounter was biologically male.

"I was crushed," Jose Merel said. "I don't know — it just broke my heart to hear that."

Merel, 25, and two other men are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Gwen Araujo, who prosecutors say was strangled with rope after her identity was revealed at Merel's house in 2002.

According to earlier testimony, suspicions about her gender arose after Merel and codefendant Michael Magidson, 25, compared notes about sexual encounters with Araujo.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050728/ap_on_re_us/transgender_killing

[wli]

1. murder is murder, the question is whether to tack on hate crime charges

[livinginphotographs]

2. You know, I don't know why I even read the "Discuss" link.

There are some truly vile "people" that post on that site.

Anyway, hearing about how this broke this guys heart doesn't elicit a lot of sympathy from me. Sure, Araujo probably shouldn't have deceived them, but that doesn't excuse the murder, nor the very deliberate way in which they carried it out.

Fuck these guys. They are obviously dangerous individuals, and would've found an excuse to kill someone for something further down the line if it wasn't this.

[donco6]

3. "I didn't know!" Bullshit. He killed her to protect his . . .

"manhood" when it came out that he'd been with a man. He did it with his male friends to prove he wasn't "gay".

Throw the book at the wretch.

[Withywindle]

4. Horrifying case...

No sympathy at all. None. "Crushed"? "Broke my heart"? He's sounding like somebody who was dumped, not someone who committed brutal murder. Cry me a fucking river. In prison. For life.