Jury reaches verdict in transgender slaying trial

[FreeState]

Source: Associated Press

Jury reaches verdict in transgender slaying trial
Associated Press - April 22, 2009 4:54 PM ET

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) - Jurors have reached a verdict in the trial of a Greeley man charged with beating a transgender woman to death with a fire extinguisher.

The verdict was expected to be read Wednesday afternoon.

Jurors deliberated for only about two hours before announcing they had reached a decision.

Thirty-2-year-old Allen Andrade is charged with murder and a bias-motivated crime in the death of 18-year-old Angie Zapata.

Prosecutors say Andrade knew for 36 hours that Zapata was biologically male and killed her out of his dislike for homosexuals. Andrade's attorneys argue Zapata deceived him, and that he snapped when he discovered Zapata was biologically male.

Read more: http://www.kjct8.com/Global/story.asp?S=10231086

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Being read now - will edit for verdict when announced!


Count 1 First degree murder, guilty - 2 Bias motivated, guilty - 3 Aggvd motor vehicle theft 1st degree, guilty - 4 ID theft, guilty


YES JUSTICE!

[Taverner]

1. Good - I can't say awesome because its not. A woman is dead.

A family mourns, and the perps family is mourning...

But justice, has been done...

[FreeState]

2. I agree - however I can say Awesome that Trans-panic defense did not work!

I get so sick of people playing that and the gay-panic card in court - its great to see juries that can see through that.

RIP Angie

[Taverner]

3. Yes - I just wish someone didn't have to die for it to be rejected

[FreeState]

4. Agree 100% n/t

[cosmicone]

5. His punishment ....

spending the rest of his life with Ann Coulter hahaha

[lies and propaganda]

6. Good.. what a scumbag Andrade is

RIP Angie

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Thank G-d!

This is good, very good, news!

[strategery blunder]

8. Bittersweet news.

Bitter in that someone was brutally murdered out of hate;

Sweet in that jurors saw right through the Fred Phelps Defense.

I don't know what to think. :cry:

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. This is the right decision, of course, but everyone has a right to a defense

The lunatic on this board suggesting that a defendant in a criminal trial should be considered guilty until proven innocent after indictment needs to reflect on his or her fascism.

[madamesilverspurs]

10. The verdict

gives me hope for Greeley. The city is the reddest part of a state trying to go blue. The battle to unseat Marilyn Musgrave (she of the so-called 'protection of marriage' garbage) was very vigorous in 2006, and finally succeeded in November. There are still many of the Fred Phelps types, and no doubt they will be screeching and yowling in protest. The horrific evidence notwithstanding, that a jury from this particular community came to a guilty verdict speaks to the forward movement, however reluctant, of a population dragging itself from the 19th to the 21st century.

As it happens, I didn't know Angie. But a couple of my friends did know her, and it has been hard seeing their pain. They have been there for Angie's family, likewise for some (but not all) of our local politicians. Even the first candlelight vigils were un-harassed.

I debated whether or not to post these observations in response to the verdict. But I thought it encouraging that this verdict was reached in the same community where, not long ago, a church canceled the funeral of a gay man.

It's a step forward. And I continue to pray for Angie's family, and for all those who are hated.