A jury deliberated this week murder charges against Robert Stringer Jr.,
whose attorneys argue he acted out after the victim made sexual advances. (Photo
by Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
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Friday, June 17, 2005
PITTSBURGH — Jury deliberations continued
early this week in the murder trial of a Monessen, Pa., man accused of abducting,
robbing and killing a Wilkinsburg banker after the male victim allegedly made
sexual advances toward the accused, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Robert
Stringer, 22, killed Daniel Lynch, 56, on Jan. 11, 2004, but defense attorney
Thomas Farrell said Stringer survived gay rape when he was a child, and suffered
emotional disturbances triggered by Lynch’s alleged advances, the Post-Gazette
reported. Farrell argued that Stringer is guilty only of third-degree murder,
but prosecutors quoted psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Wright in alleging Stringer’s
disorder is that he is clinically antisocial. Prosecutors allege that Stringer
would continually lie to cover up his intent to rob Lynch for money to buy drugs,
the Post-Gazette reported. The prosecution seeks a life prison term for Stringer,
while a third-degree conviction could result in a maximum 20 to 40 years in prison.
HAYWARD, Calif. (AP) — A defense attorney
in the trial of three men accused of killing a transgendered teenager hammered
at the credibility of the prosecution’s key witness, saying he’s
lying to save himself. Witness Jaron Nabors initially also faced murder charges
in the October 2002 death of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo. He was allowed to plead
to manslaughter in exchange for his testimony against the others: Michael Magidson,
Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, all 25. Prosecutors claim Araujo, who was born
a boy named Edward but grew up to believe her true identity was as a woman,
was murdered in a calculated revenge attack when the men discovered that the
flirty girl two of them had sex with was biologically male. A previous trial
last year ended in a hung jury.
EDINBURGH — Appeals judges last week rejected
claims that detectives forced witnesses to lie at a murder trial after threatening
to expose them as gay, the Scotsman reported. Stuart Gair, 42, has worked for
nearly two decades to clear his name after he was found guilty of a 1989 stabbing
in an alleged mugging gone wrong in a Glasgow area frequented by gays, according
to the Scotsman. Gair alleges that a conspiracy by detectives contributed to
the verdict, but judges in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh said the
witnesses in question changed their stories under influence from Gair or pressure
from his supporters, the newspaper reported. The victim, Peter Smith, died due
to stab wounds to the chest, and one witness said he saw Gair pull out a knife
prior to the incident, the Scotsman reported. That witness later said police
threatened to tell his family and friends he was gay, and he said the threat
scared him into making up his testimony, according to the newspaper.
EDMONTON — Police in Western Canada are
investigating a Christian activist after 2,000 leaflets that level attacks at
gays were distributed, the CBC News reported. Bill Whatcott of Regina reportedly
is behind fliers that refer to gay unions as “sodomite marriage”
and use explicit language to detail alleged gay sex practices, CBC reported.
“The material is offensive and it’s an affront on the basic tenets
of our society, which is about multiculturalism, tolerance and peaceful co-existence,”
Constable Steve Camp of the Edmonton police hate crimes unit told the CBC. Gay
activists said they will take the case to the Alberta Human Rights & Citizenship
Commission if the police investigation does not net criminal charges, CBC reported.
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A suspended Roman Catholic
clergyman pleaded guilty last week to a felony count of attempted sexual abuse
in New York, admitting to groping a former altar boy in a Greenwich Village
hotel room during an overnight trip, the Manhattan district attorney’s
office said. Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr., of Scranton, had already pleaded
guilty in Luzerne County to sexually assaulting the same teen-ager over a three-year
period. Liberatore, 41, was charged last year after the victim, now 20, told
police he became involved with the priest when he was an eighth-grade altar
boy at a church in Duryea. Investigators said the man described sleeping twice
a week at Liberatore’s home and going with him on trips to New York, where
he said Liberatore took him to gay bars and they had sexual contact at hotels.
Under a plea agreement with New York prosecutors executed May 26, Liberatore
will get 10 years probation, be banned from school grounds and other places
frequented by minors, and have to register as a sex offender.
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