Tag: hate crime

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NYC: Elliot Morales Found Guilty Of Murder As A Hate Crime In Mark Carson Shooting Death

Murder victim Mark Carson

Elliot Morales has been found guilty of second degree murder as a hate crime in the fatal shooting of openly gay Mark Carson in Greenwich Village in May 2013.

From the New York Times:

The jury of four men and eight women deliberated for two days after two weeks of emotional testimony in State Supreme Court, during which Mr. Morales represented himself and took the witness stand to declare he was not prejudiced toward gay people. Murder as a hate crime carries a minimum sentence of 20 years to life, five years more than a second-degree murder conviction.

Mr. Morales shook his head in disbelief and muttered under his breath as the jury foreman read the verdict sheet: guilty on all counts.

Several witnesses testified they saw Mr. Morales pull a silver revolver and shoot Mark Carson in the face after an argument during which he called Mr. Carson and his friend, Danny Robinson, “faggots” and “gay wrestlers.”

Mr. Morales denied that his motive had been bigotry and said he was bisexual. He claimed he acted in self-defense because he felt he was about to be attacked by Mr. Carson and Mr. Robinson. He said he raised his gun and fired after he saw Mr. Robinson pull what looked like a black pistol from his pocket. “I just reacted,” he said during his closing argument. “This was not a deliberate act.”

Morales was found guilty of all the charges filed against his: murder in the second degree as a hate crime, criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degrees, menacing a police officer, and menacing in the second degree.

Morales, who has previously served 11 years in prison for a robbery involved three women who he tied up and beat with a lead pipe, was reportedly drunk the night of the shooting.

As he was being arrested, Morales was captured on video admitting to police that he shot Carson.

Morales, 36, represented himself in the murder trial. He now faces 20 years to life in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for April 11th.

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NYC: Transgender Woman Says Hate Crime Killer Is Not A Bigot

Elliot Morales

A man who shot and killed a gay man in Greenwich Village in 2013 while yelling anti-gay slurs, presented to the court deciding his fate a character witness who claims the two were lovers for ten years proving Morales is no bigot.

Elliot Morales, acting as his own lawyer for the hate-crime slaying of gay stranger Mark Carson, called as his first witness a former flame whom he’d met online.

The 38-year-old transsexual woman, using the pseudonym Jane Smith, testified from behind a curtain in Manhattan Supreme Court that she and Morales, 36, had a physical relationship on and off for 10 years.

“In your experience and personal knowledge, do you believe Elliot Morales is a person who hates gays?” Morales asked the pre-op transsexual, who does HIV testing in a clinic that caters to the LGBT community.

“Absolutely not,” she answered.

The woman said she met Morales after he responded to her dating profile that stated, “Transsexual woman looking for a man.”

Charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, Morales faces 30 years to life in prison.

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Jurors See Video Confession Of 2013 Greenwich Village Hate Crime

Jurors currently deliberating the murder of a gay man in Greenwich Village in May 2013 were shown a cellphone video Thursday of homophobic killer Elliot Morales confessing to his crime after being taken into custody.

Via New York Post:

“I f–king shot him dead!” Morales shouts, cackling, as several NYPD officers restrain him face-first on the pavement.

“Diagnosis dead, doctor!” he continues, laughing to the police. “They don’t teach you that in the academy, right?”

Morales then tries to lick the pavement and lifts his head as if he’s about to slam it into the concrete, but a cop stops him.

Morales, 36, is representing himself at his murder trial in Manhattan Supreme Court for the hate-crime slaying of stranger Mark Carson in Greenwich Village on May 18, 2013.

The officer said that when he first arrived on the scene at Third Street near MacDougal Street, Morales told him, “I shot him dead. He deserved it. He was acting tough in front of his bitch.”

Morales, charged with second degree murder as a hate crime, faces life in prison if convicted. He asked for, and received, permission to represent himself in the court case.

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Jury In Kathryn Knott Trial “Disgusted” Over Knott’s Testimony

After the jury was dismissed in the trial of Kathryn Knott in Philadelphia today, three jurors spoke to the press, saying the entire jury believed Knott not only punched the victims but yelled anti-gay slurs in the violent gay-bashing that took place on September 11, 2014.

From Philly.com:

Joan Bellinger, 67, the jury forewoman, said the jurors all believed Knott punched Hesse and yelled antigay slurs.

But she said jurors had to compromise on certain things.

Another juror, Aristeo Duenas, 33, of Brewerytown, said: “The conspiracy was what was tripping us up.”

He and juror Gina Cook, 36, of Roxborough, said jurors had to examine what the law said on the various charges Knott faced.

“If the decisions went the way that I wanted them to go, she would have been guilty on everything, but when you read the actual law,” and apply it to what happened, it can be different, said Duenas, a public-school teacher.

Tweets that Knott posted on her Twitter account in 2012 and 2013 became part of the trial, with prosecutors contending they showed Knott did not like gay people.

In one tweet, after Knott saw two men kissing in a bar, she wrote “#gay #ew.”

Knott testified in the trial. She said her tweets were not meant to be offensive and were taken out of context.

She also testified she did not punch anyone or yell any antigay slurs on the night of the assault.

Asked about her tweets, Duenas said: “We were pretty disgusted. It was pretty embarrassing to watch her testify. She was trying to explain away these tweets. … She would have become a better character to me if she would have been like, ‘You know what, I messed up. I said those things. It was stupid.’ “

Cook said: “I think it’s so easy for the word ‘gay’ to be thrown around, and it’s dehumanizing. For some people it’s just a way of explaining something lesser.

“It’s just horrific. To watch her explain this hate speech, in my eyes, it’s saddening, and I hope that whatever sentence she receives that she will have time to think about how hurtful words are and that, to me, it’s, in the law, it’s promoting and it’s inciting.”

Knott heads back to court on Feb. 8 for sentencing.

Her co-conspirators – Kevin Harrigan and Philip Williams – plead guilty earlier this year and received probation and community service.

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Transgender Woman Beaten And Murdered In Philadelphia

 Twenty-two year old transgender woman Kiesha Jenkins was shot twice in the back early this morning in North Philadelphia.

Via Huffington Post:

“She was known to the LGBTQ community as a transgender individual,” the spokeswoman said.

Police are treating the case as a homicide — not a hate crime — though that could change as the investigation continues, she added.

Jenkins was jumped by five to six men, physically assaulted, then shot in the back, police said.

A $20,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information leading to an arrest and conviction of the men.

Keisha Jenkins is one of at least 16 transgender women of color reportedly killed in the U.S. this year.

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Philadelphia: Three Accused In Vicious Hate Crime Due In Court October 15

Kevin Harrigan (left), Philip Williams (center) and Kathryn Knott

It looks like October 15th will be the day Philadelphia will see if the three young haters who attacked and beat two gay men (leaving one with a shattered jaw for weeks)  in Center City will get justice or a slap on the wrist

From Philly.com:

Kevin Harrigan, 27, of Warrington; Philip Williams, 25, of Warminster; and Kathryn Knott, of Southampton, who turns 25 Friday, are charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy and related offenses in the Sept. 11, 2014, clash at 16th and Chancellor streets.

Michael Barry, chief of the district attorney’s central division bureau, said Thursday that there have been ongoing negotiations with the defense attorneys. He said he expects the three defendants to enter guilty pleas on Oct. 15, when the case is next listed in the Criminal Justice Center.

Barry, though, would not comment on the details of the plea offers or what charges he expects the defendants may plead guilty to. He said there is not yet any plea agreement in place.

Barry said that on Oct. 15, “either the defendants will plead guilty” or their case will be “spun out for trial.”

“I do expect them to plead guilty,” he said.

He said one main reason the three defendants have not been in court each time for pretrial conferences was because “as part of their bail, they are banned from Center City.”

Williams’ attorney, Fortunato “Fred” Perri Jr., confirmed afterward that he and his client “are currently reviewing a plea offer that’s been extended by the District Attorney’s Office.”

Asked if he expects Williams to plead guilty on Oct. 15, Perri said: “No decisions have been made yet.” But he added, “We think it’s a fair offer.”

Harrigan’s attorney, Joshua Scarpello, also confirmed that there have been plea negotiations.

“We’re trying to work it out,” he said. The terms of a possible plea are “not yet set in stone.”

He also said of the three defendants: “They have not been offered the same deal.” Each defense attorney, he said, is “trying to do the best for his client.”

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Two Corpus Christi Men Indicted For Brutal Hate Crimes Against Gay African-American Man

Federal hate crime indictments were returned Monday against two Corpus Christi men accused of beating and torturing a gay black man back in 2012.

In the days after the alleged attack, the victim told KRIS6 News he was targeted because of sexual orientation and race.

He detailed how he owed the men $5. The victim claims that even though he paid them the money, they still beat him, poured bleach in his eyes, stripped him naked and sexually assaulted him with a broom or mop and forced him to clean up blood in the home.

The victim says he was only able to escape several hours into the ordeal by jumping out a second story window.

Evidence presented by the FBI and the Corpus Christi Police Department led to the indictments against 32-year-old Jimmy Garza Jr. And 22-year-old Ramiro Serrata Jr for conspiracy to commit hate crimes, a hate crime violation based on race and color, a hate crime violation based on sexual orientation and using a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence.

If convicted, both face a maximum life sentence in federal prison.

(via kristv.com)

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South Carolina: Nine Dead In Hate Crime At Church Shooting

Police in Charleston, South Carolina say a white gunman killed nine African-Americans during a Bible study class at an historic black church on Wednesday night.

Police are searching for a white male, approximately 21 years old, with sandy blond hair. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

More at CNN.

UPDATE:

The suspect, Dylan Storm Roof, had been apprehended about 245 miles northwest of Charleston, according to USA Today.

Police said the suspect, from Columbia, S.C., had been sought in a black Hyundai with vehicle tag LGF330 and appealed to the public for any information on his whereabouts.

A Facebook page for a Dylann Roof’ carries a photo of a young man in a bowl-like haircut similar to the image in a surveillance photo outside the Emanuel AME church just before the killings Wednesday night. The page says he attended White Knoll High School in Lexington.

The Facebook page also carries a photo of Roof standing in in front of a swamp forest wearing a jacket with patches of the racist-era flags of South Africa and Rhodesia, the one white-ruled country now called Zimbabwe.

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Gay Couple Brutally Attacked In NYC BBQ Restaurant

A gay couple dining at a NYC BBQ restaurant in Chelsea was violently attacked by two men over a spilled drink.

DNAinfo has the details:

A gay couple was bashed over the head with a wooden chair, knocked to the ground and kicked by two men hurling anti-gay slurs at the Chelsea Dallas BBQ Tuesday night, in an attack captured on a graphic video, according to police and the victims. “These guys attacked us specifically because they knew we weren’t their type of people,” said Jonathan Snipes, 32, who had a tooth knocked loose and cartilage snapped in his ear during the beating.

“It was disgusting. It was awful,” Snipes, who was attacked alongside his boyfriend Ethan York-Adams, 25, told DNAinfo New York. In one video, York-Adams, 25, tries to shield Snipes by throwing his arm around his shoulder just before a man rushes up to them with a wooden chair and cracks it over their heads. York-Adams falls to the floor and Snipes slumps into a nearby chair, visibly dazed. An NYPD spokesman said an investigation is ongoing, but that the incident was not currently being investigated as a hate crime.

At the restaurant, Snipes got a text about a death in his family and needed to leave the restaurant quickly, he said. As he headed out, he accidentally knocked over a drink, he said. “A table near us audibly started making pretty gross comments about the two of us like, ‘White faggots, spilling drinks,'” Snipes said. “I don’t let anyone talk to me like that. I went over there and asked, ‘What did you say about us?'” he added. The man knocked Snipes to the ground and started kicking his face and spine, knocking loose one of his teeth, snapping the cartilage in his ear and bruising his head, he said. He shouted, “Take that, faggot,” according to Snipes.

No charges have been filed at this time.

The first video is the blindside attack with the chair. Warning: Graphic violence.

Second view shows the assailant attacking and kicking the victims leading up to the assault with the chair:

(h/t JMG)