TG Murder

Kai · Moody Protagonist Gender: Joined: 08 Oct 2003

Ok I'll ask you to forgive me because this is the second transgender related post I've made. But I just came from my TG meeting yesterday and it's stuff like this that infureats me. This story barely made local papers much less state or national. It's just another hate crime that will be swept under the rug like Matthew Sheppard. And no one even know who he is now...

Michelle Locke
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:45 p.m. April 27, 2004

HAYWARD – Transgender teenager Eddie "Gwen" Araujo died a slow and violent death, a witness testified in a chillingly detailed version of how the 17-year-old was killed.

According to Jaron Nabors, who says he was present during much of the assault, Araujo was choked, slapped, punched, kneed and kicked. She was hit on the head with a can and a frying pan. She was tied up, and he saw one of the defendants start to pull a rope toward her neck.

Afterward, Nabors helped bury the body.

Nabors, the chief witness against the three men accused of killing Araujo, portrayed a grim scenario of seemingly remorseless attackers.

Araujo was bleeding; she was ordered off a couch to keep it clean, he said. Later, she was carried into the garage because blood was getting on the carpet. Before helping to bury the body, Nabors said he changed into an old shirt so he wouldn't get his good one dirty. On the way back from the burial, the men were hungry so they stopped at McDonald's for breakfast.

Michael Magidson, 23, Jose Merel, 24, and Jason Cazares, 24, are charged with killing Araujo. Nabors, 21, who led police to the body, initially was charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and has been promised an 11-year sentence for testifying.

Defense attorneys say Nabors is lying to save himself.

"You were in it up to your neck," Tony Serra, Cazares' attorney, said as he began cross-examining Nabors.

At one point, Serra challenged Nabors on why he changed his shirt before burying the body, saying the real reason was the shirt was covered in blood. "That shirt is hanging in my closet as clean as a whistle," Nabors responded.

Serra also brought up Nabors' failure to mention Cazares in his initial statements to police. The lawyer accused Nabors of falsely implicating Cazares to give prosecutors "fresh blood."

"You substituted my client for yourself, didn't you?" said Serra. "What you say my client did, you did. Isn't that true?"

"No," said Nabors.

Nabors admitted he had lied in the past but said "when I'm obligated to tell the truth, I tell the truth."

According to earlier testimony, Nabors and the three defendants became friends with Araujo, whom they knew as "Lida," in the summer of 2002. Nabors testified that Merel and Magidson had sexual encounters with her and they began to suspect she was biologically male after comparing notes.

On Oct. 3, 2002, the men confronted Araujo at Merel's house in Newark, a San Francisco suburb. Araujo was shocked and resisted suggestions that she physically prove her gender, Nabors said. She tried to leave the house on the excuse that she wanted to smoke a cigarette, but Nabors said he stopped her and pulled the door shut.

Eventually, another woman at the house ended the debate by grabbing Araujo's genitals.

Chaos ensued.

As the attack began, Araujo begged for mercy, saying "No, please don't. I have a family," Nabors said.

Nabors described Merel as wielding the can and skillet and said Magidson choked, punched and kneed the teenager. He said Cazares kicked Araujo after she was down. Nabors also acknowledged his own culpability, saying he believes he would be convicted of murder in Araujo's death if tried on that charge.

After Araujo had been tied up and taken to the garage, Nabors said he saw Magidson pulling a loose end of rope toward Araujo's neck. He said he left the garage to go into the house, where he saw Merel scrubbing blood from the carpet. Nabors said he returned to the garage to find Magidson and Cazares carrying Araujo's body out to a pickup truck.

The four drove about 150 miles east to a remote area near Lake Tahoe, where they dug a grave, putting Araujo's body in and throwing rocks on top, Nabors said.

At some point on the drive, Nabors said Magidson talked about having twisted the rope. According to Nabors, Magidson said he hadn't been sure Araujo was dead until Cazares hit her over the head with a shovel.

Little was said at the grave site, said Nabors. But he does recall Merel saying something: "That he was so angry that he could still kick her a couple of times."