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| Matthew Shepard |
What happened in Laramie on Oct. 7, 1998, changed how this Wyoming community would be viewed by people from around the world.
10 years ago, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was found tied to a split-rail fence in an undeveloped area just east of the city limits. He had been beaten, robbed and left to die.
Within hours of Shepard's discovery, people from around the country descended on Laramie, looking for a glimpse into the story behind the crime.
It didn't take long before clues from a series of seemingly unrelated crimes were put into perspective and 2 Laramie men, Aaron James McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson, were arrested and charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. Their girlfriends, Chasity Vera Pasley, 20 and Kristen Leann Price, 18, were arrested and charged with being accessories after the fact.
Police said the women helped dump bloody clothing and initially lied about their whereabouts. All but Price appeared in Albany County Court on Oct. 10, just 3 days after Shepard was found.
5 days later, on Oct. 12, Shepard succumbed to his injuries in Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo.
Charges against the 2 men were amended and they now faced murder with the possibility of the death penalty.
Shepard's death and the clues that led law enforcement to the arrest and eventual plea and conviction of 2 Laramie men brought even more people into town.
Television crews dotted the area surrounding the courthouse and on the University of Wyoming campus, where Shepard was a student.
On Dec. 9, Price and Pasley pleaded not guilty to accessories after the fact in Shepard's murder.
The charges against Price were later dismissed.
Pasley changed her plea following a 17-minute hearing in District Court Dec. 24. On May 21, 1999, Pasley was sentenced to 15-24 months for accessory after the fact of murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
Attorneys for McKinney and Henderson asked that they not be tried together. Albany County Attorney Cal Rerucha concurred and a trial date for Henderson was set.
On April 5, 1999, as the district court trial for Henderson, 21, was about to begin, he entered into a plea agreement.
Instead of going to trial, Henderson pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to 2 life sentences.
The sentences were to run consecutively life without parole in exchange for a guilty plea.
A trial date for the 2nd suspect, McKinney, 21, was set.
During McKinney's trial, evidence was presented and witnesses testified to what they knew about the relationship between the defendant and the victim. Rerucha carefully detailed his case against McKinney, outlining the events of the evening before Shepard was found. Testimony from witnesses and law enforcement interviews with the suspects set the scene from the time Shepard and the 2 Laramie men met in a local bar through the events that led to their arrests.
The jury was convinced that the evidence was strong enough and returned a guilty verdict for McKinney.
The penalty phase of the hearing was set and just before the proceedings began, the prosecuting attorney announced that the death penalty had been removed and a recommendation for life without parole had been made.
Both men were ordered to serve their sentences in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins.
Since his incarceration, Henderson has filed a petition requesting a new trial.
His request was denied by the Wyoming State Supreme Court.
McKinney and Henderson were relocated and are now serving out their sentences in penitentiaries in other states.
Source: Laramie Boomerang
Background information:
Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was murdered near Laramie on the night of October 6 – October 7, 1998. Shepard died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12, 1998, from severe head injuries. His murder brought national as well as international attention to the issue of hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.
Russell Arthur Henderson pleaded guilty to felony murder and kidnapping, allowing him to avoid the death penalty. Aaron James McKinney was convicted of felony murder and kidnapping. Henderson is currently serving two consecutive life sentences and McKinney is serving the same but without the possibility of parole.
Shortly after midnight on October 7, 1998, 21-year-old Shepard met McKinney and Henderson in a bar. McKinney and Henderson offered Shepard a ride in their car. Subsequently, Shepard was robbed, pistol whipped, tortured, tied to a fence in a remote, rural area, and left to die. McKinney and Henderson also found out his address and intended to rob his home. Still tied to the fence, Shepard was discovered eighteen hours later by a cyclist, who at first thought that Shepard was a scarecrow. At the time of discovery, Shepard was still alive, but in a coma.
Shepard suffered a fracture from the back of his head to the front of his right ear. He had severe brain stem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. Shepard never regained consciousness and remained on full life support. As he lay in intensive care, candlelight vigils were held by the people of Laramie.
He was pronounced dead at 12:53 A.M. on October 12, 1998 at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. Police arrested McKinney and Henderson shortly thereafter, finding the bloody gun as well as the victim's shoes and wallet in their truck.
The two men had attempted to get their girlfriends to provide alibis.
Henderson and McKinney were not charged with a hate crime, as no Wyoming criminal statute provided for such a charge. The disturbing and brutal nature of Matthew Shepard's murder prompted calls for new legislation addressing hate crime, urged particularly by those who believed that Shepard was targeted on the basis of his sexual orientation.
The anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, led by Fred Phelps, picketed Shepard's funeral as well as the trial of his assailants, displaying signs with slogans such as "Matt Shepard rots in Hell", "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" and "God Hates Fags". When the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled that it was legal to display any sort of religious message on city property if it was legal for Casper's Ten Commandments display to remain, Phelps attempted and failed to gain city permits in Cheyenne and Casper to build a monument "of marble or granite 5 or 6 feet (1.8 m) in height on which will be a bronze plaque bearing Shepard's picture and the words: "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."
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