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Murder or Manslaughter?
A couple of years ago, there wasa story about a transgender male/female that had been bruttally murdered after some guys she’d been with found out she was biologically male.
This morning, as I was skimming the news, this story cropped up again. It seems that the case had gone to a jury trial and the original jury came back deadlocked on whether it was murder or manslaughter.
Here are some details from the case:
Michael Magidson, 24, Jose Merel, 25, and Jason Cazares, 25, are charged with killing Araujo, who was born Edward but came to believe her true identity was as a woman. After she died, her mother had her name legally changed as a mark of respect.
According to a fourth man, Jaron Nabors, 22, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a plea bargain and agreed to testify against the others, Araujo was beaten and strangled after her biological identity was revealed during a confrontation at Merel’s house in a San Francisco suburb.
The four men had met Araujo, whom they knew as “Lida,” months earlier and became fast friends.
According to testimony from the defendants’ first trial, both Merel and Magidson had sex with Araujo and became suspicious that she was not biologically female.
Their suspicions were confirmed on Oct. 4, 2002, when a young woman at the house grabbed Araujo’s genitals, Nabors testified. Nabors said he saw Merel hit Araujo with a can and a skillet and Magidson punched, choked and kicked her.
Araujo begged for her life, saying “No, please don’t. I have a family,” Nabors said.
The attack dragged on for more than an hour, and Nabors said he left before the actual killing. He said Magidson later talked about twisting a rope around Araujo’s neck.
The next day, all four men took the body to the Sierra foothills, where it lay for nearly two weeks until Nabors led police to the grave.
So does it matter whether it was murder or manslaughter? Definately. First you have to show whether it was preplanned or spur of the moment. The defense is trying to show that because these guys had all slept with Araujo, the sudden discovery of her biological identity, embarrassed or violated them so deeply that their primal instinct was to kill her.
First-degree murder is punishable by 25 years to life, second-degree by 15 years to life and manslaughter by up to 11 years. The case was also charged as a hate crime, a potential extra four years.
I don’t enough about the case to make a judgement and don’t know if they brought Araujo to this place for the sole purpose of murdering her or if the sudden discovery that evening just set them off.
On an aside though, I don’t understand how these two guys could have sex with her and not realize that there was a little something extra low down under. The story does say they “became suspicious she was not biologically female”, but one would think after having sex, you’d be more than just suspicious.
The case now is to figure out if these guys committed a calculated, preplanned murder or if they became so enraged over their discovery, without any preplanning, they killed her.
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2 Responses to 'Murder or Manslaughter?'
Maybe they’re referring to oral sex?
Yeah, well obviously it had to oral, because they did “become suspicious” afterall. Ugh. If you can’t access the naught bits, you should start worrying.