Prosecution rests
in second Araujo murder trial

The prosecution has concluded its case in the Northern California murder trial of three men accused of killing a transgender teenager. Jason Cazares, Jose Merel, and Michael Magidson, all 25, are charged with first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo.

Araujo, who was born a boy named Eddie but had been living as a woman for some time, was killed after her biological identity was revealed at a party at Merel's house in October 2002. The teenager was savagely beaten and strangled. Her body was buried in a shallow grave in the Sierra foothills east of San Francisco. A previous trial ended with a hung jury last year.