Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Decorated Sailor Charged with the Murder of Gay Sailor August Provost

August Provost pic on his MySpace page

August Provost pic on his MySpace page

San Diego, CA – The U.S. Navy says that a decorated petty officer has been charged with murder and other offenses in the June 30 slaying of gay Seaman August Provost at Camp Pendleton, California.  Jonathan Campos, 32, has been in military custody since July 1, when the smoldering remains of Seaman Provost were found inside the guard shack where he stood sentry on the night of his murder.  Campos, a Lancaster, CA native, enlisted in the Navy in 2001.  He is a military fuel-system technician who had received numerous decorations, including the Good Conduct Medal.  He has been charged with murder and arson, as well as charges of wrongful possession of a firearm, unlawful entry to a military base, carrying a concealed weapon and stealing military property.  Forensic evidence shows that Provost was shot multiple times with a .45 calibre pistol.  The sentry shack was then torched with Provost’s body inside in order to destroy evidence of the crime.  The Navy continues to deny that the victim was killed because of his sexual orientation.  Instead, naval investigators for NCIS contend that Provost surprised Campos as he was seeking to gain entry to the anchorage where hovercraft were docked in order to set one of them afire, and that Campos shot Provost at that time.  Provost’s family and friends, along with gay rights activists, believe that his sexual orientation played a factor in the murder.  His aunt has told the press that her nephew complained to her about being repeatedly harassed for his homosexuality, and that he had one prime antagonist on base at Camp Pendleton.  Though it is not known whether Campos is that antagonist, both he and Provost served in the same unit, Assault Craft 5.  Ben Gomez, head of the San Diego chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights, a national LGBT servicemembers organization, said to San Diego 6 that he and other LGBT activists believe Seaman Provost’s murder was a hate crime.  They contend that he was killed after having an argument about his sexuality with an antagonist on base.  They do not find the Navy’s claim credible that Provost was a “random” victim.  While the Navy largely bases their claim that sexual orientation did not play a part in Provost’s murder since he had never filed a complaint with his superiors about being harassed for being gay, family and the LGBT community counter that he could not have felt safe approaching his commanders at Camp Pendleton because of the threat posed to his continuing military service because of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT).  Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from California and Provost’s native Texas are calling for a full investigation into the case.

July 23, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Arson, California, DADT, gay men, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, immolation, military, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Texas, U.S. Navy | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Decorated Sailor Charged with the Murder of Gay Sailor August Provost

15-Year-Old McInerney Will Be Tried as an Adult for the Murder of Larry King

Brandon McInerney, left, and Larry King, right

Brandon McInerney, left, and Larry King, right

Ventura County, CA – A judge reviewing the evidence against Brandon McInerney, 15, has ruled today that he will be tried “under special circumstances”  as an adult in the February 2008 shooting death of his 15-year-old gay classmate, Larry King, at a middle school in Oxnard, CA.  McInerney’s attorney has consistently argued that his client, 14 at the time of the shooting, should be tried as a juvenile rather than an adult.  But Judge Ken Riley ruled otherwise, on the basis of testimony in the three-day preliminary hearing that McInerney had threatened King’s life, and that on the morning of the shooting, he chose not to confront King on the playground or in the corridor before school, but “lay in wait” for 15 or 20 minutes inside the 8:30 am computer class he shared with his alleged victim before pulling the trigger, killing him in cold blood in front of their classmates.  The “executory nature” of the murder convinced Judge Riley to remand McInerney for trial as an adult, according to the Ventura County Star.  If convicted of all counts against him, McInerney could serve 53 years to life in prison.  The defendant’s mother, Kendra McInerney, broke out in tears as the judge issued his ruling.  The defense is expected to continue raising the “gay panic defense” as a mitigating factor in the slaying.  McInerney’s lawyer has said that his client cracked when King, who was openly gay and presented femininely, sent him a Valentine and blew him kisses.  Other evidence presented in the preliminary hearing suggests that McInerney was steeped in Neo-Nazi propaganda and had recently stayed over at the home of a white supremacist leader before the shooting, factors that may have influenced him to attack his gay classmate.

July 22, 2009 Posted by | Anglo Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Blame the victim, Bullying in schools, California, gay men, gay panic defense, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Law and Order, Neo-Nazis and White Supremacy, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, School and church shootings | , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 15-Year-Old McInerney Will Be Tried as an Adult for the Murder of Larry King

Satendar Singh Remembered: Would Have Been 29 Today

Satendar Singh (July 21, 1980-July 5, 2007)

Satendar Singh (July 21, 1980-July 5, 2007)

Satendar Singh, gay Indo-Fijian immigrant to the United States, would have been 29 years old today.  He was fatally injured at California’s Lake Natoma State Park by Slavic fundamentalist Christians who shouted slurs at him on July 1, 2007, calling him “Hindu,” “7-11 Worker,” “Faggot,” and taunting him that he should “go to a good church” like they did.  Punched in the face by Andrey Vusik, a Russian car exporter who had just come from church that Sunday morning, Singh fell backward, striking his head on a concrete walk.  Though he regained consciousness for a short time, Singh went into a coma, losing all brain activity.  Since his parents lived 5,000 miles away in the South Pacific nation of Fiji, the decision to remove life support from him fell to his uncle and aunt, who like Singh, lived in Sacramento.  Vusik fled the United States, leaving his wife and three small children behind in West Sacramento, and is still at large.  An accomplice of his, Alexandr Shevchenko, stood trial in May 2008 for inciting a fight, assault, and a hate crime.  He was found guilty of the two misdemeanor charges, but the the jury deadlocked 7-5 on the hate crime charge.  Shevchenko was sentenced to 150 days in jail.  Singh’s fatal offense seems to have been dancing with both men and women friends who went to the lake with him to celebrate his promotion at work.  Friction between Slavic fundamentalist Christians who teach that homosexuality is a sin and the large LGBT population of Sacramento had been growing for over two years, with thousands of “Russian Baptists” and Pentecostals from Russia, Uzbekistan, the Ukraine, and Belorussia who emigrated to the US for religious freedom protesting any public LGBT celebration or event in the Sacramento Valley.  LGBT rights advocates feared that something deadly might happen one day, and they point to Satendar Singh’s murder as evidence that they were right.  The two men who attacked Singh and his party of friends had ties to the anti-gay extremist group, Watchmen On the Walls, featured in the Intelligence Report of the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Singh, a Sikh and not a Hindu as his attackers falsely assumed, was transported back to Fiji for the last rites of his funeral.  Rest in peace, sweet brother!

July 21, 2009 Posted by | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Beatings and battery, Blame the victim, California, gay men, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Remembrances | , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Satendar Singh Remembered: Would Have Been 29 Today

Syracuse Jury Finds Slayer of Transwoman Guilty of Manslaughter Hate Crime

lateisha green3Syracuse, NY – In a closely watched case, a man charged with shooting an African American transgender woman to death outside a house party in November 2008 has been found guilty of anti-gay bias.  Dwight DeLee will be sentenced shortly for the murder of Lateisha Green, née Moses Cannon, a 22-year-old male-to-female transperson who commenced living as a girl at the age of 16.  Green frequently dressed in women’s clothing, but was dressed in a tee shirt and jeans on the night of her murder.  DeLee’s attorney argued that his client had no animus against LGBT people, but witnesses testified that he referred to Green as a “faggot” the evening he shot her to death with a .22 calibre pistol in her brother’s car.  The Onondaga County jury, charged by the presiding judge to consider possible conviction for murder or manslaughter with or without the hate crime charge delivered their verdict of guilty of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime in six hours of deliberations over two days.  Earlier in the summer, Allen Ray Andrade was also found guilty of the bias-motivated murder of Angie Zapata, an 18-year-old Latina transwoman in Greeley, Colorado.  Now with this second prominent conviction for anti-gay hate crime bias in the nation, the argument marshaled by conservative law enforcement agencies that hate crimes enhancements are impractical because they seldom can be proven in court is increasingly discredited.  These hate crimes convictions not only demonstrate the bankruptcy of entrenched refusals to try defendants for anti-gay bias, but they also show the acknowledgment that hate crime murders differ substantially from other sorts of murders, giving the lie to the argument that all murders are somehow on a par.  LGBT advocates have been largely successful in educating the American populace that hate crimes not only target the specific victim of the murder, but also send a message of terror to a whole class of people in affinity with the victim of the homicide. Thanks to William Kates of the Associated Press for breaking this story.

July 17, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Colorado, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Law and Order, New York, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Syracuse Jury Finds Slayer of Transwoman Guilty of Manslaughter Hate Crime

Larry King’s Killer Offered Plea Deal

Lawrence King and Brandon McInerneyVentura, CA – The Ventura County Star reports that Brandon McInerney, now 15, has been offered a plea deal that would potentially cut his sentence in half for the February 2008 murder of his 15-year-old gay classmate, Larry King.  District Attorney Greg Totten will allow McInerney to plead guilty to first degree murder in exchange for the lighter sentence.  “It would bring it down, from a maximum of 53 years to life, to 25 years to life,” said Maeve Fox, the Senoir Deputy DA who is actually prosecuting the case.  Further, she said to the Star, “The reason Mr. Totten authorized that offer is because we are keenly aware of this young man’s age. We are keenly aware of his developmental level being that he was 14 years old at the time of the crime,” Fox said. “And, we are also keenly aware that he is a very dangerous individual.”  The prosecution would also allow McInerney to plead guilty to the hate crime charge, and serve that sentence concurrently with the murder sentence.  McInerney’s lawyer, Robyn Bramson, has complained of cruelty against her client because of his young age.  The prosecution has countered that the defense is intentionally slowing down this case to a snail’s pace.  Now the preliminary hearing has been postponed until July 20 at the defense team’s request.  Fox responded, “I am out of options.  The King family has a right, the people of the state have a right to have this case moved along.”  King, who declared himself gay and presented femininely, had been harassed by schoolmates for months in Oxnard’s E.O. Green Middle School.  McInerney, slightly younger than King, but physically more dominating and tough, had participated in these bullying sessions, according to classmates of both boys.  As Valentine’s Day 2008 neared, King let McInerney know that he liked him.  Teased about it by other students, McInerney allegedly brought a 22 calibre pistol to school, and shot King in the back of the head while the boys were in their morning computer class.  Not since the hate crime murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998 has a story of bias-motivated murder of an LGBT person captured the public’s attention so much.  If the deal the prosecution has offered is accepted by McInerney, he could be out on the street in his forties.

July 9, 2009 Posted by | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, California, gay men, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Law and Order, Media Issues, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, School and church shootings | , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Larry King’s Killer Offered Plea Deal

Pattern of severe of anti-LGBT violence increases nationwide

stop hate hand

The Hate Crimes Bill has provided an excellent summary of a new report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs showing anti-LGBT violence has been on the rise since the murder of Lawrence “Larry” King in Oxnard, California, at the beginning of this year.

“The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) reports a recent rash of at least 13 brutal and violent hate crimes that have occurred throughout the country on the heels of the murder of 15 year-old Lawrence King in Los Angeles and the brutal beating of Duanna Johnson, both in February of 2008,” says the Hate Crimes Bill’s website. “NCAVP reports that these hate crimes may indicate a frightening trend of increases in both the number and severity of anti-LGBT violence.”

The NCAVP findings come after several anti-LGBT hate crimes, including the police beating of a transgender woman in Memphis, Tennessee; the harassment and beating of a gay man on a New York subway; the murder of a transgender woman in Memphis, Tennessee; the alleged police beating of a gay man in Greeley, Colorado; the beating of a priest in Queens, New York, for protecting a group of LGBT youth living at a shelter for homeless youth; the midnight home-invasion and arson, in Central New York, by a self-proclaimed Neo-Nazi, who targeted a sleeping 65-year-old gay man (the victim was able to flee the home, unhurt); the fatal bludgeoning of 18-year-old Angie Zapata, a transgender Latina woman in Greeley, Colorado; the beating of gay man Jimmy Lee Dean, in Dallas, Texas, whose injuries were so severe that he was in intensive care and could not be interviewed or identified until five days after the crime; the severe injury of a man in upstate New York, whose two assailants beat, kicked, and shouted anti-gay slurs until they had broken ten bones in their victim’s face; the attack against an 18-year-old living in St Helens, in the United Kingdom, who died a week later from his injuries; the (at least partially) anti-gay-motivated shooting rampage in a Knoxville, Tennessee, church that claimed two lives and wounded seven others; the mob-beating and stabbing of a man perceived to be gay in Staten Island, New York; the ongoing and escalating harassment (for nearly 8 years) of a gay male couple living in Cleveland, Ohio, by anti-gay neighbors; and the ongoing and escalating harassment (for nearly 20 years) of a gay male couple living in a rural Pennsylvania town, who have suffered incidents of gunfire, vandalism, stalking, acts of intimidation, and the indifference from local police.

In a grim coincidence, more than one anti-LGBT hate crime has occurred in both Memphis, Tennessee, and Greeley, Colorado, since the beginning of 2008.

Unfinished Lives also offers our own analysis of the significance of anti-LGBT hate-crime statistics in the United States. The NCAVP’s findings and the Hate Crimes Bill’s detailed summary confirm what has been a growing concern for LGBT persons living in the United States.

August 19, 2008 Posted by | Arson, Beatings and battery, Bludgeoning, Colorado, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crime Statistics, Hate Crimes, home-invasion, mob-violence and lynching, multiple homicide, Neo-Nazis and White Supremacy, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, police brutality, religious intolerance, stabbings, stalking, Stomping and Kicking Violence, Tennessee, Texas, vandalism | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Pattern of severe of anti-LGBT violence increases nationwide

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