Man Charged With Rape, Murder In 2012 Attack On Teen Lesbian Couple Appears In Court--No Hate Crime

[TexasTowelie]

SINTON, TEXAS--Days after a horrific attack on a teenage lesbian couple in South Texas that left one of them dead, David Malcom Strickland approached mourners at the park where the incident occurred, according to police.

Strickland, who at the time lived near the park in Portland, Texas, outside Corpus Christi, told the mourners that his girlfriend knew one of the victims. Strickland asked the mourners for details about the investigation and was observed searching the grass near the crime scene, witnesses said.

Nearly two years later, Strickland allegedly delivered a letter to a business in Portland in which he implicated another man in the June 2012 shooting that left 19-year-old Mollie Olgin (above right) dead and her then-18-year-old girlfriend, Kristene Chapa (above left), seriously wounded. As it turned out, the man implicated in the letter was a former roommate of Strickland's, from whom Strickland had been charged with stealing firearms in Utah. The letter led police back to Strickland, who was arrested this June and charged with capital murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping in the attack on Chapa and Olgin.

On Friday, with Chapa and about 20 pro-LGBT protesters gathered outside, Strickland made an appearance in court. The protesters carried rainbow flags and signs suggesting the incident was an anti-gay hate crime. but San Patricio County District Attorney Michael Welborn told The Corpus Christi Caller-Times he doesn't believe it was motivated by anti-gay bias.

Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2014/11/strickland.html

Cross-posted in the Texas Group.

[shenmue]

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[irisblue]

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[nomorenomore08]

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[Amimnoch]

4. On the bright side, even if it may not be tried as a hate crime, he'll likely be executed.

Texas may be one of the most ignorant states when it comes to recognizing or not recognizing a hate crime being a hate crime.. but, when it comes to something like this, this guy has a higher percentage of being found guilty, and one of the highest percentages in the nation of being condemned to death if he is found guilty.

[okasha]

5. This guy is going down for capital murder.

There are only two possible outcomes following a guilty verdict: death or life in prison without parole. There is no way an "enhanced" sentence can be more severe.

I think the prosecutor is probably going with charges he knows he can prove without getting into the question of the defendant's
state of mind two years ago.