Hate Crime Enhancement Ruled Out in Duncanson Verdict
Roberto “Pancho” Duncanson
1987 – May 12, 2007
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York
Terence at www.republicoft.com expresses outrage that Roberto Duncanson’s murder was not classified or prosecuted as an anti-gay hate crime. I share the outrage, T. If his stabbing death was not about hate, then what was it about?
Roberto Duncanson, nicknamed “Pancho,” worked at a local CVS Drug Store in Chelsea, NY. He had planned to vacation in Miami for his 21st birthday, and afterwards to start school to become an x-ray tech. He was a gay African American.
On the night of May 12, 2007, he had a run-in with Omar Willock, 17, who became enraged with Duncanson, claiming that he had flirted with him. All Willock could point to was the way he said Duncanson “looked” at him. Willock followed Duncanson down St. Mark’s Avenue, Crown Heights, shouting anti-gay slurs at him.
Duncanson walked away. He intended to visit a cousin on Brooklyn Avenue. Willock wouldn’t let it go. He kept verbally attacking Duncanson, and then started a fistfight with him. Duncanson defended himself. According to eye-witness testimony from his cousin, Jeimar Brown, after he and two girls pulled the two men apart, Willock had used a knife on his victim, having stabbed him four times. Willock ran from the scene. Duncanson collapsed on the sidewalk, striking his head on a street sign, bleeding profusely. He died an hour later at Kings County Hospital.
Willock was arrested after being picked out of a police lineup. His trial for the murder of Roberto Duncanson began March 11, 2009. On March 12, the judge in the trial tossed out the hate crime charge, which would have increased the minimum sentence in the case of conviction. He told the court that the DA had not sufficiently substantiated the hate crime nature of the murder. Willock was found guilty and sentenced from 15 years to life. Customarily, less than 25 years of such a sentence is served.
Willock dogged Duncanson again and again, verbally assaulting him with ugly, anti-gay epithets, provoked a fight, and then wielded his knife to stab and kill the person whose life he loathed. Hate crime? Hell, yes! What else would any reasonable person call it?
~ Stephen V. Sprinkle, Director of the Unfinished Lives Project
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If you are a first-time visitor to the Unfinished Lives Project website, we invite you to read A Welcome Message introducing you to our project. We are truly grateful for your visit.
The Unfinished Lives Project website is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBTQ hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation. LGBTQ people in the United States are suffering a slow-rolling decimation of terror and murder all across the country. Every locale and demographic of society are affected: First Nations, Anglo, Black, Latino and Latina, South and Southeast Asian, Transgender, Bisexuals, Gay men, Lesbians, disabled, young, and mature. Homophobia has a long, crooked arm, and it is reaching out to snatch the life away from women and men whose tragic stories are under-reported to begin with, and whose memories are swiftly forgotten.
The horror of these killings transcends the shock and bereavement of loved ones and friends. These are not typical homicides; they are not killings for money or drugs, incidents of domestic strife, or crimes of passion. The vicious nature of hate crimes against LGBTQ persons is extremely brutal, grotesquely violent, and egregiously hateful.
Each murder serves the LGBTQ population as a sobering warning about the actual level of danger in our communities. The message these killings send is that freedom and open life for LGBTQ people is a cruel dream. Every time we remember one of these victims, however, the intentions of their killers are frustrated. To remember these women and men is to begin the process of changing the culture that killed them.
Our Project Director
Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle (Keith Tew photo).
Stephen V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBTQ person to be tenured there. Read More…
Recent Social Justice Advocacy Activity By Dr. Sprinkle
Summer 2009 – Dr. Sprinkle responded to the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay bar, on June 28, 2009, the exact 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Dr. Sprinkle was invited to speak at three protest events sponsored by Queer LiberAction of Dallas. Here, he is keynoting the Rainbow Lounge Protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse on July 12, 2009. Read More…
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Steve Sprinkle
Unfinished Lives: Remembering LGBT Hate Crime VictimsBrite Divinity School/Texas Christian UniversityFort Worth TXprofessor, minister, author, blogger, LGBTQ advocate
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Unfinished Lives 
Hey Berto its bread… I miss you so much its crazy you not being here you know i had a lil boy last year Feb, I always say you sent him to me and I thank you. Every time I pass the block I just feel empty inside but I know you are in a better place watching ova us.I know u good up there but i just wish you were here with us, me and mel mel always talk about what popped off on your birthday on th train that shit was crazy….lol, but we had fun….lol well baby we will meet again till then I will always miss you
Love Bread