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Defense switches
strategies in Araujo murder case

Defense switches
strategies in Araujo murder case

Darkness descended the night a transgender teenager was beaten and strangled to death, the attorney for one of the men accused in the killing said as he laid out his case for the jury. In a surprising departure from the first trial in the case, which ended with a hung jury last year, attorney Bill DuBois said his client, Jose Merel, would take the stand and talk about his genuine attachment to 17-year-old Gwen Araujo. "He will tell you about the horror of that evening, about seeing into the heart of darkness that descended over that house on the fourth of October 2002," DuBois said in his opening statement Thursday. Merel, Michael Magidson, and Jason Cazares, all 25, face charges of first-degree murder. Prosecutors say Araujo, who was born a boy named Edward but came to believe her true identity was female, was killed after her biological gender was revealed during a confrontation at Merel's house in Newark, a San Francisco suburb. The showdown was prompted, according to prosecutors, by suspicions that arose after Merel and Magidson compared notes about their sexual encounters with Araujo. In his opening statement, prosecutor Chris Lamiero said the defendants executed Araujo in a savage but slow attack. But defense attorneys gave a different version. Cazares's attorney, Tony Serra, said his client--the only defendant to testify at the first trial--was outside when the killing took place and helped only to bury the body out of loyalty to his friends. Magidson's attorney, Michael Thorman, conceded his client played a role in the death but said the case was manslaughter, not murder. "Eddie Araujo was killed not for what he was but for what he did to unsuspecting heterosexual males," he said. Merel's attorney, meanwhile, said his client cared for Araujo and did not do her serious injury. He said Merel never intended to kill her and felt intimidated by the others into going along with the disposal of the body, which was buried in a shallow grave near Lake Tahoe. Key testimony in the first trial came from the man who led police to the body--Jaron Nabors, 22. Nabors, also at the house the night Araujo died, initially was charged with murder but was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for his testimony. In opening statements, the defense hammered at Nabors's credibility, pointing out his conflicting statements to police and alleging that Nabors falsely implicated his friends to cover up his own culpability. Lamiero said he wouldn't try to claim that Nabors was "a good guy," but he pointed out that if prosecutors don't believe he's telling the truth on the stand, his deal goes away. Nabors testified last year that he saw Merel strike Araujo with a can of food and a skillet. But DuBois said Thursday that a devastated Merel only menaced Araujo, demanding an apology. "He said, 'The least you can do is say you're sorry,"' DuBois said. "She says, 'I'm sorry.' He takes the pan and just skips it off the top of her head. That's it." DuBois said that Nabors, however, struck Araujo in the head with a hand weight. Thorman, who said Magidson also will testify this time, said his client did attack Araujo in a "blind rage." However, he said the plan was to drop Araujo off on a street corner and leave her to walk home. Instead, said Thorman, Magidson went into the garage, where Araujo had been carried, and asked Nabors, who was also in the garage, whether Araujo had regained consciousness. "And Jaron says, 'She's not going to regain consciousness. She's dead.'" Thorman also contested Nabors's account that he saw Magidson begin to pull a rope around Araujo's neck and later heard him talking about twisting the rope. Thorman said Magidson did at one point tell police he strangled Araujo but that was merely an attempt to protect the others. Nabors took the stand again Thursday and described how he and the other three men met Araujo. He was expected to continue testifying Monday. Earlier, Thorman said his defense isn't an attempt to shift blame to Araujo. "Please don't misunderstand," he said. "I talk about deception and betrayal, but there is nothing [Araujo] did that justified the brutal beating that she received and certainly not being killed. It was wrong. It is a crime, and Mike Magidson is here to take responsibility for the acts that he committed. But the evidence will show you that the crime he committed was manslaughter, not murder." Outside the courtroom, Chris Daley of the Transgender Law Center said he was dismayed by the manslaughter defense. "They're continuing to show disrespect for Gwen," he said, "blaming Gwen for what happened to her." (AP)

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