FREMONT -- In a stunning turnaround, one of four defendants charged with killing Eddie "Gwen" Araujo pleaded guilty Monday and testified the four friends discussed dealing with the Newark transgender teen "Tony Soprano-style."
Jaron Nabors, 19, also described how Araujo was slapped, choked, hit with a can and struck with a frying pan after the defendants discovered, during an Oct. 3 party, that the 17-year-old was biologically male.
The testimony occurred on the day Araujo would have turned 18.

Nabors reversed his earlier not-guilty plea to murder and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. In exchange, he must testify against his three friends, and will serve at least 11 years in state prison.
In a jailhouse letter to his girlfriend, intercepted by jailers a month after his arrest, Nabors described how he and his three friends talked about what they would do if they learned the girl they knew as "Lida" was biologically male.

Araujo, 17, was strangled and beaten at the Merel house during that party after the defendants learned the teen was a biological male, prosecutors said.

The four then buried the body -- still bound with ropes -- in a shallow grave in the El Dorado County wilderness east of Placerville, prosecutors said. The body was discovered Oct. 16 after Nabors led police to the site.

Robert Beles, Nabors' attorney, said his client had no idea the letter to his girlfriend -- and mother of his 1-year-old son -- would be intercepted.

In the letter, Nabors outlines the events of that night, though Beles said his client never participated in the killing.

He took the deal because there is "specific evidence he was aiding and abetting in the murder," Beles said. His testimony on the details of the killing is expected today.

Sylvia Guerrero, Araujo's mother, said she was pleased with Nabors' guilty plea.
"That was very comforting, to come in this morning and have that happen," she said.

The chilling testimony began with Nabors describing how the four friends' relationship with Lida Araujo led to sex, then a beating.
While in the garage of the Merel home about a week before the party, the four friends discussed Lida's gender and what they would do if they discovered she was a man posing as a woman, Nabors testified.
"We had a conversation and went off on a Tony Soprano-like plan to kill him and get rid of the body," Nabors told a packed courtroom at the Fremont Hall of Justice.

The plan was hatched after both Magidson and Merel had oral and analsex with Araujo, then began to question the teen's gender.

On Oct. 3, the four friends were out drinking until about 2 a.m., and on the way to the party, they decided to confront Araujo.

During Monday's hearing, held to determine if there is enough evidence to force the remaining three defendants to stand trial, Nabors described how the four friends repeatedly questioned Araujo. At one point, Magidson reached between the teen's legs before he took Araujo into the bathroom to verify the teen's gender.

While Magidson was in the bathroom, "Jose (Merel) said, 'I swear if it's a (expletive) man, I'm going to kill him. She ain't leaving,'" Nabors said.
"I told him to be calm and think about what you're going to do," Nabors said.
When Deputy District Attorney Connie Campbell asked why he said that, Nabors replied, "I knew if this turned out to be true, some kind of physical altercation would ensue."
Finally, Magidson pulled Araujo to the floor, lifted the teen's denim skirt, pulled aside her underwear and saw male genitalia.
At that point, Merel was pacing the hallway, crying and repeating, "I can't be gay, I can't be gay," punctuating his remarks with expletives. From that point on, chaos reigned.

After being slapped in the face twice, Araujo begged them to stop. Araujo said, "No, please don't, I have a family," Nabors testified.

Magidson choked Araujo on three separate occasions before Merel hit the teen on the head with a can of soup or corn, then with a frying pan, Nabors said.
At that point, Cazares and Nabors left. "I said, 'Where are we going?'" Nabors testified.
"He said, 'We're going to my house to get shovels because they're going to kill that bitch.'"

Araujo's uncle, David Guerrero, said he was pleased with Nabors' testimony, though some of the details were tough to take. "I believe he's credible and I believe he's telling the truth," Guerrero said.
(Staff writer Robert Airoldi covers police and the courts for The Argus. He can be reached at (510) 353-7011 or rairoldi@angnewspapers.com .)

February 26, 2003

A slew of eerie details about the night of the killing emerged as Nabors, 19, testified for the second day against his three friends. Nabors pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for his testimony. He will serve 11 years in state prison.

Nabors on Tuesday described how one of his friends ordered Araujo off a couch at an Oct. 3 party because the teen was bleeding; how he changed shirts before burying the body; and how all four stopped for breakfast after burying Araujo in the Sierra foothills.

Michael Magidson, 22, of Fremont and Newark residents Jason Cazares, 22, and Jose Merel, 23, are charged with murder and a hate-crime enhancement in Araujo's death. They have pleaded innocent to killing Araujo after discovering the transgender teen was biologically male. Magidson and Merel had anal and oral sex with Araujo in the weeks leading up to the party, Nabors testified.
During a day and a half of testimony in front of a packed courtroom that included some of victim's family, Nabors described how Araujo was slapped, punched, kneed, kicked and hit with a frying pan before the teen was bound at the wrists and ankles and strangled in the garage of the Merel home.
Nabors said the four men hurled insults at the teen after they buried the body -- still bound with ropes -- in a shal-low grave at the Silverfork Campground east of Placerville the morning after the party.
Merel was so mad "that he could still kick her a couple of times," Nabors said at Tuesday's hearing, held to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.

Araujo's mother, Sylvia Guerrero, sat in court most of the day listening to the testimony, wearing a pair of her slain child's jeans.
"It's inconceivable to me that there are human beings in this world that are capable of murdering another human being in the manner that Gwen was murdered," she said. "I teach my kids to love, not to hate. I really miss (Gwen) deeply."

After Araujo was struck in the head with a frying pan, Cazares and Nabors left in Magidson's truck and picked up three shovels and a pick from Cazares' home.
When they returned about 20 minutes later, they saw Araujo sitting on the couch, the teen's face covered with blood. Some-one ordered Araujo off the couch so Merel could clean it, and then Cazares said, "knock that bitch out," Nabors said.
"Then I said, 'Yeah, knock that bitch out.'"
Magidson walked over and punched Araujo twice in the face, causing the teen to fall to the ground. Then he kneed Araujo twice in the face, the second time so hard that the teen's head dented the wall, Nabors said. Then Magidson retrieved a handful of rope and bound Araujo's wrists and ankles, Nabors said. Cazares left and returned shortly with a comforter that they wrapped around the body before taking the teen into the garage.
"She was getting blood on the carpet," Nabors explained.
So Magidson, Cazares and Nabors carried the body into the garage while Merel cleaned the couch and carpet.

Nabors said he saw Magidson grab a loose end of rope and bring it toward Araujo's head, before he went back into the house.
But Deputy District Attorney Connie Campbell reminded Nabors of a jailhouse letter he wrote to his girlfriend a couple of weeks after his Oct. 16 arrest, in which he described the strangling.
"Did you describe how you had seen Mike place a rope around Lida's neck?" Campbell asked.
"Yes," he replied.
Then the body was placed in the back of Magidson's pickup truck along with the tools, Nabors said. But before they left, Nabors borrowed a shirt from Merel. "I had on a nice shirt and didn't want to wear it," Nabors said. "I believed it was going to get dirty because we were going to bury Lida."

During the trip east, the four men discussed various aspects of the crime. "Mike said he wasn't sure Lida had died when he twisted the rope, but once Jason hit her with the shovel twice, he knew for sure," Nabors recalled.
When they reached the campground they found a remote location, dug a hole, tossed the body in and covered it with rocks before filling the hole with dirt. Then, using a branch with leaves, they covered their footprints.
Shortly after leaving, they stopped at a McDonald's restaurant for breakfast, Nabors said.

"They had no remorse," said David Guerrero, Araujo's uncle. "They were more interested in figuring out how they could cover it up, get food and stay clean."

Once they were home, Nabors said he called a friend, Adam Hewson. Hewson went to Nabors' house, Nabors said, and the two smoked marijuana while Nabors told Hewson about Araujo's death.

The account was passed from one friend to another until it reached Araujo's family. The family, which had reported the teen missing Oct. 5, then contacted police about a possible connection between the missing boy and the party.
Nabors said he initially lied to police, but after he was confronted with a tape of a conversation police made using a wire worn by Hewson, Nabors eventually told of his involvement and led police to the body.
Michael Thorman, Magidson's defense attorney, began his cross examination Tuesday, questioning Nabors credibility, perception and recollection.

The hearing is expected to continue March 17.

The woman who revealed that transgender teenager Gwen Araujo was biologically male -- precipitating the fatal attack against her -- testified Tuesday that she had been so certain the beautiful girl she knew as "Lida" was female that she "freaked out" when she learned otherwise.
Nicole Brown, 23, said in a Hayward courtroom that she was the one who had suggested she "check" to determine Araujo's biological gender, and she described how she had put her hand up Araujo's skirt and grabbed her genitals.
"I thought I felt a penis," Brown testified. Brown then screamed and ran into the hallway shouting, "I can't believe this is a f -- ing man. I can't believe it. I can't cope with this," she said.
Brown is testifying at the trial of three men charged with murder and a hate-crime enhancement for the Oct. 4, 2002, slaying of the 17-year-old, who was born Edward Araujo but lived and identified as a young woman.

Michael Magidson, 24, of Fremont and Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, both 24 and from Newark, could face life sentences if convicted. A fourth man, Jaron Nabors, 21, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case and will serve an 11-year sentence in exchange for testifying against his friends.
Brown, who was dating Merel's older brother, Paul, described how a night of drinking and partying had descended into a frightening scene that prompted her to flee from the house.
She said she had retreated with Paul Merel to his bedroom when she heard loud voices in the kitchen. She went out to investigate, she said, and found Jose Merel standing above Araujo -- who was sitting in a corner with her head down -- repeatedly asking, "Are you a man or a woman?"
"I said, 'I believe this is a female, but if she isn't going to tell you, maybe you should check for yourselves,' " Brown said. Magidson then held Araujo's hand and walked with her to the bathroom.
Brown said she and the other men had stayed behind in the kitchen, debating Araujo's gender. Jose Merel then told the group he had had anal sex with Araujo. According to prosecutors, Magidson also had oral sex with Araujo.
Describing herself as irritated that Magidson was taking so long in the bathroom, Brown said, she walked to bathroom intending to prove that Araujo was a woman. Instead, she discovered Araujo was biologically male and left the bathroom screaming.
"They got an answer to the question they were asking, and I was worried about what was going to happen next," she testified.
Brown said she had seen Magidson wrestle Araujo to the ground and grab at Araujo's underwear. Then, Magidson put Araujo in a headlock.
Brown ran back toward Paul Merel's bedroom and saw Jose Merel, she said, who was crying and saying, "I'm not gay. I don't like men."
"I put my hands on his shoulder and said, 'This is not your fault. You were a football player,' " Brown said, describing how she tried to console him. "I told him that he should let this person go."
"He (Jose Merel) said, 'I'll let her go, but I don't want to do it. You do it,' " Brown testified.
Araujo walked toward the front door, but Brown said she had heard voices say, "Where do you think you're going? I don't think so."
Later, Brown said, she saw Magidson punch Araujo in the face as Nabors and Cazares looked on. Magidson then began choking Araujo. Emmanuel Merel, Jose Merel's younger brother, grabbed Magidson's arm and, with the help of Jose Merel and Cazares, pulled him off, Brown testified.
Brown said she had finally rousted Paul Merel, and together they prepared to leave. As she left, she saw Araujo sitting on the couch and Magidson standing near the doorway, his hands shaking and arms sprinkled with blood.

Before driving to Brown's home in Livermore, the couple saw two of the defendants driving in Magidson's truck. They told Paul Merel they were going to get shovels, Brown said.
Later that day, Brown said, she phoned Jose Merel to ask what happened. "He said, 'Let's just say she had a long walk home,' " Brown testified.
Under cross examination, J. Tony Serra, Cazares' attorney, grilled Brown about the reliability of her testimony. Brown said she smoked marijuana and drank about a dozen beers the night of the attack.
Serra emphasized that Brown had never seen Cazares strike the victim. Serra also asked Brown to describe how Nabors had asked Brown to lie to the police if they questioned her about Araujo's disappearance. Nabors wanted Brown to say that any blood in Merel's home was a result of Brown's earlier fight with Araujo, she said.
"I told the police the truth," Brown said. "I didn't go with his lie."
Brown will continue to testify under cross-examination this morning. Emmanuel Merel is expected to take the stand next, and Nabors could testify as early as this afternoon, prosecutor Chris Lamiero said.

HAYWARD

A Newark transgender teen was hit with a skillet, choked and kneed in the face during a vicious attack during which the youth pleaded, "No, please don't, I have a family," the prosecution's star witness testified Monday.
One of the three defendants, Jose Antonio Merel, struck Gwen Araujo in the head with a metal skillet when he and others discovered that Araujo, 17, was biologically male, Jaron Nabors said during graphic testimony in Alameda County Superior Court.
Merel, 24, of Newark, Michael Magidson, 24, of Fremont and Jason Cazares, 24, of Newark face murder and hate-crime charges in the slaying and could face life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors allege they beat and strangled Araujo -- who was born Edward Araujo but lived and identified as a young woman -- in the wee hours of Oct. 4, 2002, and then buried her body in El Dorado National Forest in the Sierra foothills.
Nabors, 21, who led police to the body, was charged with murder but pleaded guilty last year to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for testifying against his friends in the Hayward courtroom of Judge Harry Sheppard.
Nabors' chilling description of Araujo's last moments prompted three relatives to walk out and elicited gasps from the audience.
Merel and Magidson grew worried about Araujo's gender after having oral and anal sex with her in the weeks before the fatal confrontation during a party at Merel's home, Nabors said.
Merel and Magidson questioned the youth's gender because Araujo -- known as "Lida" -- would claim to be menstruating and recommend anal sex, Nabors said. Araujo would also push their hands away during sex to prevent them from discovering her true gender, Nabors said.
Deputy District Attorney Chris Lamiero elicited testimony from Nabors suggesting the defendants had not acted out of a sudden rage -- as has been suggested by the defense -- but instead had hatched a plan to kill Araujo.
According to Nabors, Merel said on the night of the party, "I swear, if it's a man, I'm going to f -- kill him." Merel's tone seemed matter-of-fact, Nabors said. Suspecting that Araujo was indeed male, Magidson rubbed his forehead, saying, "I don't know what I'm going to do," Nabors testified.
"Be calm and think clear," Nabors testified that he replied. "Whatever you're going to do, don't make a mess."
Asked by the prosecutor what he meant, Nabors said he believed "something was going to happen of a biblical nature."
At first, the defendants asked Araujo to voluntarily reveal her gender or allow them to touch her, but she said, "I'm not going to let you molest me," Nabors said.
But a woman who was at the party, Nicole Brown, previously testified that she had grabbed at Araujo's genitals in a bathroom confrontation later that night and blurted out, "It's a f -- man."
Merel and Magidson then slapped Araujo, who pleaded for them to stop because she had a family, Nabors said. Magidson pushed Araujo to the ground and pulled down her skirt and her underwear, Nabors said. "What did you see?" Lamiero asked.
"Testicles," Nabors replied.
Magidson choked Araujo, and Merel cried and said in disbelief, "I can't be f -- gay," Nabors testified. Merel struck Araujo in the head with a vegetable can and skillet, Nabors said.
Nabors said he and Cazares had then gone to Cazares' home to get some shovels. Cazares said, "We're going to get some shovels. They're going to kill that b -- ," according to Nabors.
Nabors said that, when he returned to Merel's house, Araujo, apparently conscious, was sitting on the couch, her face bleeding. She was told to get out of the way because she was getting blood on the couch, which Merel began cleaning, Nabors said.
Cazares then said, "Knock that b -- out," and Nabors said he replied, "Yeah, knock that b -- out," Nabors testified.
Magidson punched Araujo twice in the face and then twice hit her in the head with his knee with enough force that Araujo's head left a hole in the wall, Nabors said. Despite the blows, "It appeared to me that she was conscious," said Nabors, who is expected to resume testifying today.
Outside court, defense attorneys said the well-spoken Nabors was providing self-serving testimony that was full of holes. They said Nabors was falsely claiming to have an omniscient view of the case to fulfill his deal with prosecutors, who have agreed to an 11-year prison sentence for Nabors.
"He is the slickest perjurer that I've ever encountered," said San Francisco attorney J. Tony Serra, who is representing Cazares. "I'm just very hopeful that tomorrow, when we get our opportunity, we'll impeach him severely. "
Prosecutors "have to show premeditation and deliberation," Serra added. "It's just not there. It's a heat-of-passion case and a not-guilty case."
Michael Thorman, Magidson's attorney, said his client could not have delivered any punches to Araujo's face.
"There's no injury to the face," Thorman said. "The nose was completely intact. It wasn't broken. There were no bruises. He's going to have to explain how was that possible."

HAYWARD -- A defense lawyer for one of three men on trial for killing a transgender Newark teen worked Tuesday to discredit the prosecution's key witness, casting him as a calculating liar who turned state's evidence to "save his own skin."
Jaron Nabors, 21, spent a third day on the witness stand at the Hayward Hall of Justice. During questioning in recent days and again Tuesday by Prosecutor Chris Lamiero, Nabors recounted in chilling detail how the victim -- born Eddie Araujo but living as a young woman named Gwen at the time of the killing -- was assaulted in a Newark home early Oct. 4, 2002.
Nabors is testifying against three former friends on trial for murder with a hate-crime enhancement. Michael Magidson, 23, of Fremont, and 24-year-old Newark residents Jose Merel and Jason Cazares face potential sentences of 29 years to life in prison if convicted.
Nabors, who originally faced the same charges as the other three, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter last year in a deal with prosecutors that requires him to testify against his former associates. Nabors is expected to be sentenced to 11 years.
During the morning session Tues-day, Nabors testified under direct examination about how he and his three friends drove Araujo's body to the El Dorado County wilderness early Oct. 4, 2002, and buried it in the Sierra foothills.
During a vigorous cross-examination in the afternoon session, J. Tony Serra, attorney for Cazares, worked to portray Nabors as a deceptive, selfish and dishonest person.
Nabors described in detail Monday how the assault on Araujo began when he and the other men -- two of whom had been sexually active with the victim, according to testimony -- learned that the teenager was biologically male. Nabors said the men slapped, punched, kicked, kneed and ultimately strangled the teenager in the garage of the Merel home.
Araujo then was loaded into the bed of Magidson's truck, Nabors testified Tuesday, and the four men drove to the Sierra foothills and buried the bound and battered body. Before leaving on the drive, Nabors testified that he borrowed a shirt because he didn't want to soil his own while digging the grave.
After stopping at a nearby McDonald's for breakfast after the burial, Magidson talked about the strangulation, Nabors said.
"He said he kept turning the rope and he was making the motion with his right hand," Nabors said. Cazares added that Araujo had urinated as the rope tightened, according to Nabors.
At some other point on the trip, Magidson said while he had not been sure that the strangulation had killed Araujo, he was sure the teen was dead once he saw Cazares deliver two shovel blows to Araujo's head, Nabors testified.
Although the men agreed to keep the slaying secret, Nabors testified that within hours of returning, he told a friend about what had occurred. The story eventually filtered its way to Newark police, and about two weeks after Araujo's disappearance, Nabors led detectives to the grave.
Serra spent the second half of the day calling into question Nabors' character. Serra accused Nabors at one point of committing "premeditated perjury." One of Serra's early questions epitomized many to come during the afternoon:
"I suggest to you that it's in your nature that, when it's convenient for any objective that you have in mind, you will deceive," Serra said.
Nabors replied that while he had been dishonest in the past, he had been truthful during all court proceedings and when obligated.
In contrast to the methodical and sequential nature of direct examination, Serra's cross-examination was unpredictable and clearly intended to keep Nabors off-balance.
In his effort to cast Nabors in a different light, Serra read passages from several transcripts that captured conversation between Nabors, who is in jail, and his girlfriend.
Unlike the calm, articulate and well-mannered witness he has been in court, the transcripts show Nabors speaking in slang and using obscenities.
After reading one profanity-laced statement from the transcript attributed to Nabors, Serra said, his voice rising:
"No fancy language, no white shirt. You were just a foul-mouthed street person back then on Oct. 3, isn't that true?"
Nabors rejected the characterization.
At another point, Serra accused Nabors of substituting Cazares for himself to be able to make a plea deal in the case.
"In order to make a deal, in order to get leniency ... you had to give what's called 'fresh blood,'" Serra said. "You had to get someone they didn't have as a body substitute."
Nabors denied that was the case, as he did an ensuing question by Serra implying that Nabors actually committed the acts he attributed to Cazares.
"You're a cold, calculating, self-centered person, selfish to the core, isn't that a fact?" Serra said later. Prosecutor Chris Lamiero objected to the question, which he said was a personal attack.
Serra, at day's end, told reporters that he was "delighted" that Nabors had admitted being dishonest in the past.
"I don't expect him to kneel over and die, but I expect that the jury won't believe a word that he has to say by the time we're finished with him," Serra said.

By Ivan Delventhal, STAFF WRITER

HAYWARD -- Defense attorneys continued to pound away Wednesday at the character of the prosecution's key witness in the trial of three men charged with killing a transgender Newark teenager.
J. Tony Serra, attorney for defendant Jason Cazares, led the charge against the witness, Jaron Nabors, picking up Wednes- day on the spirited cross-examination he began a day earlier.
Nabors, 21, spent a fourth day on the witness stand Wednesday. Articulate and analytical, Nabors is the most important prosecution witness, and the defense is seeking to portray him as selfish and a liar.
Defense attorneys repeatedly questioned Nabors' honesty and his ability to recall the events that ended with the death of the teenager -- who was born Eddie Araujo but was living as a girl named Gwen at the time of the slaying.
Michael Magidson, 23, of Fremont, and Cazares and Jose Merel, both 24 and of Newark, are standing trial for murder and a hate-crime enhancement in the death of Araujo, who was 17. They allegedly attacked Araujo after learning that the teen -- with whom Magidson and Merel had been sexually active, according to testimony -- was biologically male.
Seeking to discredit Nabors on Wed-nesday, Serra read passages of a letter that Nabors wrote from Santa Rita county jail in Dublin to his girlfriend on Nov. 15, 2002, about a month after his arrest. In the missive, which was intercepted by jail authorities, Nabors gives a detailed account of the day Araujo was slain.
While Nabors has insisted that he wrote the letter to explain himself only to his girlfriend, with whom he has a 1-year-old son, defense lawyers have said that Nabors had more selfish motives. Nabors sent the let-ter, defense lawyers allege, knowing that the authorities would read it. The defense lawyers say that he wrote and mailed the letter hoping to improve his chances of getting a plea deal. Nabors has denied the assertion. Originally charged along with the other three, Nabors pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter a year ago in exchange for his testimony against his former friends. He is to be sentenced to 11 years in state prison.
Magidson, Merel and Cazares face potential sentences of 29 years to life if convicted as charged.
Serra, like the other defense lawyers, sought to discredit Nabors as well as the letter, because the missive was the first thing to implicate Cazares in the killing. Serra has said that Nabors mentioned Cazares in the letter because he knew he had to provide authorities with "fresh blood" in order to get a deal for himself.
Nabors testified that was not the case. Serra further alleged that Nabors is a sophisticated liar who uses "self-authenticating detail" to accomplish his deception -- often mingling truthful details with fiction to spin a more believable tale.
In the letter, for example, Nabors writes that the reason he met up with his three friends the night Araujo was slain was to settle a score at a local bar. That, Nabors acknowledged Wednesday, was a lie. The attorney noted that in the letter, Nabors had deceived "his sweetheart, the mother of his child."
Nabors readily admitted to lying repeatedly to police detectives about both extraneous and important details -- such as who carried Araujo's body to the garage after a beating in the Merel home.
"Deceit was well ingrained in your personality, in the attributes of your character back then, wasn't it?" Serra said.
"I practiced it too much, yes," Nabors replied in the calm manner that has characterized his testimony. But Nabors said that his testimony in court proceedings has been truthful.
While Serra has said he will ask the jury in his closing argument to disregard the entirety of Nabors' testimony, he also elicited answers that would seem to help Magidson, whose lawyer is seeking a verdict of manslaughter based on a "heat of passion" defense.
Nabors agreed with Serra that the killing was not premeditated but rather a spontaneous event, and that it was out of character for him and the other men to visit violence upon a defenseless person.
"It was in retrospect ... an explosion of emotion, wasn't it?" Serra asked. Nabors agreed.
Serra is not seeking a verdict of manslaughter for his client. Instead, he has said, he will ask for an acquittal.
Yet another passage revealed Nabors' anger toward the victim, still present a month after the attack, Serra said.
"I never laid a hand on that stupid, drug-addicted, lying, manipulating son of a bitch," Nabors wrote, according to Serra. "Why all this animus?"
Nabors responded that at the time he wrote the letter and for a significant period, he blamed Araujo for what happened. But with time, Nabors said he arrived at a different realization: that he had no one to blame but himself.
After court recessed for the day, Serra said he felt confident that Nabors had been "neutralized" on cross-examination. Michael Thorman, attorney for Magidson, who began cross-examining Nabors near the end of the day, is to resume today.

By Ben Aguirre Jr., STAFF WRITER

HAYWARD -- Less than a week after opening statements began in the trial of three men charged with the murder of a Newark transgender teenager, members of a fundamentalist Baptist church say they will be picketing outside the county courthouse Monday where three men are on trial. Members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., said they would be spreading their message that homosexuality isn't the will of God. Michael Magidson, 23, of Fremont and Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, both 24, of Newark are charged with the murder of the 17-year-old who was born Eddie Araujo, but was living as a female named Gwen at the time of the slaying. Opening statements began Wednesday with a prosecutor describing in detail the violent killing of Araujo, who was beaten, strangled and buried in a shallow grave during the early morning hours of Oct. 4, 2002. A fourth man, Jaron Nabors, 20, originally was arrested and charged along with the other men. Last year, Nabors agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for his testimony against the three men. On Monday, as the trial of the three men inside the courtroom continues, members of the Baptist church say they plan to hold a rally beginning at noon. Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of the church, said likely less than 10 will be protesting. "There is a God, there is a Judgment Day and it's not OK to be gay," she said. Pat Skillen, president the Fremont-Newark chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said they hadn't even heard of the group's plans and that they had not planned to counterprotest on Monday. "Probably more effective to turn our backs to him," she said. "This is a very difficult time for the Araujo family. I think Rev. (Fred) Phelps is just using this to spread his hate message." Phelps is the leader of the Topeka-based church that has come to the East Bay on numerous occasions to protest homosexuality. In October 2002, about the same time as Araujo's funeral, the group protested "The Laramie Project," a play put on by Newark Memorial High School students. The play deals with the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Laramie, Wyo., resident Matthew Shepard, who was killed because he was gay. The church came to the Fremont area at that time only to protest the play, and not to disrupt Araujo's funeral, Phelps-Roper said -- adding that she regrets that they didn't. Local law enforcement agencies said they are aware of the protest and are prepared to take action if things get out of hand.

'Gay panic' defense in Araujo case

Vicki Haddock, Insight Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, May 16, 2004

How would a straight man be expected to react to the startling discovery that the woman he had been having sex with was actually a biological male?

He might be nonplussed. He might feel shock and anger at the deception. Or might he experience an enraging surge of what's sometimes called "gay panic" -- perhaps in a wave potent enough to drive him to batter the individual senseless with fists and a skillet, strangle her, and then bury her body in a shallow grave in the El Dorado National Forest?

So goes a line of defense being advanced on behalf of two East Bay men charged with just such a crime against 17-year old Gwen Araujo, who was born Eddie but had identified as a female since puberty. Later this week, a jury may be asked to render its verdict in the closely watched trial, which is the latest in which defendants hope jurors will subconsciously recoil from the idea of gay sex and sympathize with the defendants' violent reaction.

Although the tactic was once reliable to persuade juries to be more lenient toward defendants who killed gay or transgender victims, a review of recent cases suggests it's now a tougher sell. One reason may be that experts say such killings of gays tend to be particularly gruesome compared with hate crimes against other groups, undercutting jurors' sympathies.

The term "gay panic" had its origins in decades-old research suggesting that certain men are terrified by their own latent homosexual tendencies -- prompting the theory that a gay advance might yank all those emotions out into the open and trigger an aggressive, even murderous, response. Several men convicted of gay bashing said they had previously been molested by a man or suffered guilt over participating in consensual gay sex.

But "gay panic" has developed a rather elastic definition, with some defense attorneys using it as catch-all characterization of a straight man's revulsion at being on the receiving end of a gay man's pass. Activists retort that if women were permitted the same leeway to violence when faced with unwelcome sexual advances, the world would have far fewer heterosexual men.

The Araujo case, of course, ups the ante: Instead of a sexual proposition, what transpired was actual sex. And the victim wasn't gay but transgender -- something more exotic to a typical suburban jury.

Defense attorneys tried unsuccessfully at a preliminary hearing to get charges scaled back from murder to manslaughter in the killing of Araujo. Alameda County prosecutors have asked the jury to convict Fremont resident Michael Magidson and Newark resident Jose Merel, who according to testimony had sexual relations with Araujo, of first-degree murder with a hate-crime enhancement, which could earn them 25 years to life. Their friend Jason Cazares is also charged with her murder, although his lawyers said that, at most, he helped bury her out of loyalty to his friends.

Co-defendant Jaron Nabors pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and will be sentenced to 11 years in prison in exchange for his testimony. He told the jury his friends became suspicious about Araujo's gender in September, noting that her voice was scratchy and that during sex she had never allowed them to touch her genitals. On the night of Oct. 4, 2002, they forced the issue and learned the biological reality that sent Merel into a sobbing mantra: "I can't be . . . gay."

An acquaintance, Nicole Brown, testified that she tried to comfort Merel. "I put my hands on his shoulder and said 'This is not your fault. You were a football player.' "

The brutal attack that followed inside the Newark home amounted to "manslaughter in the heat of passion," Magidson's attorney Michael Thorman told the jury. He contended that Magidson's discovery that he had unknowingly engaged in homosexual sex ignited revulsion and rage.

Prosecutors contend there was premeditation in the men's actions. "They decided," said Deputy District Attorney Chris Lamiero, "that the wages of Eddie Araujo's sin of deception were death."

Araujo's family hopes for a verdict far different than the one delivered seven years ago by a Boston jury against computer programmer William Palmer. He claimed he picked up Chanelle Pickett in a bar without realizing she was biologically male. The medical examiner testified that Pickett was beaten and "throttled" for eight minutes, but the jury acquitted Palmer of murder and manslaughter, convicting him merely of assault and battery. Decrying Pickett's two-year sentence, transgender observer Toni Black said "I've seen people get more jail time for abusing animals. ... We've been judged expendable."

In 1995, Jonathan Schmitz reported being "humiliated" when friend Scott Amedure revealed during a taping of "The Jenny Jones Show" that he had a secret crush on him and fantasized about covering him with whipped cream and strawberries. Three days later he bought a shotgun, drove to Amedure's trailer and shot him twice through the heart. Juries in two trials reached the same verdict: guilty of murder, but only in the second degree.

In 1999, former skinhead Steven Mullins invoked a "gay panic" defense in the slaying of textile worker Billy Jack Gaither, who he said had propositioned him. Mullins said he and a co-defendant enticed Gaither with the promise of a sexual threesome before beating him with an ax handle and setting him on fire atop kerosene-soaked tires. The Alabama jury didn't buy "gay panic" as a mitigating factor: It convicted both men of capital murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

As for Araujo's killers, "This crime didn't occur because Mike had a bias. It happened because of the discovery of what Eddie had done," said Magidson's attorney, Thorman. "This is a case that tells a story about ... the tragic results when that deception and betrayal were discovered."

Of course, deception is hardly foreign to heterosexual sex -- a 15-year- old girl might lie about her age to an older man, or a man may seduce a woman by posing as a photographer for Playboy. "Such deceits happen on occasion, but a jury probably would be unlikely to accept them as excuses for cold-blooded murder," said Cynthia Lee, a professor at George Washington University Law School and author of "Murder & the Reasonable Man." On the other hand, she noted, jurors are less likely to personally know someone who is transgender --

and "it's precisely that lack of familiarity could work in favor of a so- called gay panic defense."

Friday, May 21, 2004 - 9:39:38 AM PST

HAYWARD -- Instinctive empathy, rather than a guilty conscience, could have led one of three men charged with killing a transgender Newark teenager to help his friends bury the body, a psychiatrist called by the defense testified in court Thursday.
But under cross-examination, the pyschiatrist also acknowledged empathy could have led the man to participate in the slaying.
Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld, a Sausalito psychiatrist, was summoned Thursday as the final witness for defendant Jason Cazares as testimony in the mur-der trial neared its conclusion at the Hayward Hall of Justice.
Cazares, 24, of Newark testified this week that he never committed any violence against the teenager -- who was born Eddie Araujo but was living as a young woman named Gwen at the time of the killing. The prosecution's star witness testified earlier that Cazares participated in the Oct. 4, 2002, attack that ended with the teen being strangled in the garage of a Newark house. Schoenfeld's testimony was intended to explain to the jury why Cazares, who also testified he had attempted to stop the assault, would have agreed to retrieve several shovels and a pickax from his home and accompany his friends to bury the body in the Sierra foothills.

Cazares' attorney, J. Tony Serra, has referred to the theory explaining his client's behavior as the "automatic empathetic response."
Cazares is charged with his friends Jose Merel of Newark, both 24, and Michael Magidson of Fremont, with murder and a hate-crime enhancement in Araujo's slaying. The prosecution contends the men beat and strangled Araujo in Merel's home upon discovering that Araujo was biologically male.
According to testimony, Magidson and Merel engaged in sexual acts with Araujo while believing the teen to be an attractive and flirtatious 19-year-old woman named Lida. In the days before the killing, however, Magidson and Merel had begun to express doubts about the teen's gender and talked about how a person who had engaged in sexual deception could end up dead, according to testimony.

Schoenfeld's testimony Thursday included a detailed discussion of the concept of empathy.
"Empathy is when we're able to experience the feelings of someone else," Schoenfeld said in response to a question by Serra. "A few years ago, it was common to hear 'I feel your pain' -- it's that kind of experience."
The psychiatrist later explained empathy is not a volitional response but something that happens involuntarily.
It is important for Serra to provide an explanation for why Cazares would have helped bury Araujo. Burying the body, as a kind of evidence suppression, potentially could be viewed as circumstantial evidence of guilt in the slaying.
Cazares testified he was outside the house, smoking cigarettes, when the teen was killed. Deputy District Attorney Chris Lamiero alleges Cazares was inside the house and actively participated in the killing.
In his questioning Thursday, Serra suggested his client had been swept up in "an avalanche of empathy" upon learning that Araujo had been killed.
In a hypothetical scenario laid out by Serra that matched his client's description of what happened on the day Araujo was slain, Schoenfeld was asked whether a man in Cazares' shoes -- whose two best friends had just committed a "horrific homicide" and then asked him to help in the burial -- could be spurred by empathy to help them.
The psychiatrist responded that a man in Cazares' position certainly would be subject to empathy. The doctor agreed the man in the scenario -- who like Cazares claimed he simply could not reject a friend's appeal for assistance -- would be manifesting the "automatic empathetic response."
Lamiero's cross-examination of the psychiatrist lasted about 60 seconds. He asked Schoenfeld whether empathy could have led the central figure in Serra's hypothetical scenario to feel the anger, rage and desire for vengeance of his friends. The psychiatrist replied it could.
"Could empathy also cause him to embark on a murderous course along with the other two?" Lamiero asked. "In other words, could empathy make him feel that same impulse to kill that the other two feel?"
Schoenfeld said empathy also could have that effect.
Court will reconvene Mon-day, when attorneys for Magidson and Merel are expected to call additional witnesses. Judge Harry Sheppard predicted testimony in the case probably would conclude by Tuesday. Closing arguments tentatively have been set for June 1.

By Ivan Delventhal, STAFF WRITER

HAYWARD -- An explosion of emotion in a Newark home -- set off when three men now on trial for killing a transgender teenager discovered the 17-year-old was biologically male -- was a lethal mix of anxiety and uproar, a psychologist called by the defense testified Monday. Dr. Andrew Pojman, a Walnut Creek clinical psychologist, was the first witness called by Michael Thorman, attorney for defendant Michael Magidson. Pojman was asked by Thorman to render an opinion on the psychological factors affecting Magidson's response to the discovery that the teenager -- who was born Eddie Araujo but was living as a young woman named Gwen -- was biologically male. The testimony appeared aimed at bolstering Thorman's contention that his client committed manslaughter -- not murder -- because he was thrown into an irrational panic upon learning the teen's biological gender.

Magidson, 24, of Fremont, and Newark residents Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, both 24, are charged with murder and a hate-crime enhancement in Araujo's slaying. The prosecution alleges that Magidson, Merel and Cazares assaulted and strangled the teen in Merel's Newark home Oct. 4, 2002, after determining that the teen was biologically male. According to prior testimony, Magidson and Merel had previous sexual relations with Araujo.

Magidson, Merel, Cazares and a fourth man, Jaron Nabors, buried the body in the Sierra foothills. Nabors pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for agreeing to testify against his former friends. Pojman testified that someone of Magidson's stunted maturity level probably would go into a "panic" upon discovering Araujo's biological gender. "It would flip them out," Pojman said. From there, the feeling could progress to a strong sense "of wanting to fix it." The group dynamic, and the effects of alcohol and marijuana, could magnify the feelings of shame and anger, Pojman testified, with the discovery of Araujo's biological gender becoming a "crisis" for the close-knit group. The psychologist testified that the scenario could fuel a response in which uproar and anxiety increase rapidly, with one feeding the other. "Sort of a perfect storm?" Thorman asked.
"Yes, that's a good way to phrase it," Pojman replied.

Under cross-examination, the psychologist testified that he was rendering general opinions based on a limited set of hypothetical facts offered by Thorman. In addition to Pojman, Thorman called five other witnesses Monday. They included two of Magidson's former girlfriends and two gay men with whom he had limited social contacts. All testified that Magidson had never expressed any homophobic views.

J. Tony Serra, attorney for Cazares, last week called a psychiatrist to testify about how empathy could have caused Cazares, who claims he did not participate in the assault and killing, to help his friends bury the body. Thorman is expected to rest this morning after a final witness. Attorneys for the two other defendants have finished presenting evidence. Closing arguments, expected to last at least two days, are scheduled to begin June 1.

A prosecutor asked jurors to find three men guilty of murder in the death of a transgender teenager, saying they acted coldly and deliberately and were not, as a defense attorney claimed, panicked by the shock of sexual deception.
"Eddie Araujo was a real human being. He laughed and he cried. He had friends and family who loved him," prosecutor Chris Lamiero said in his closing argument Tuesday. "In a matter of a few hours ... Eddie was tried and convicted and executed. He was not afforded an opportunity to appeal. He was denied the due process that these still-living men now ask of you."
Araujo, who was born male but lived as a woman, was beaten and strangled, prosecutors say, after her biological identity was revealed at a late-night confrontation in October 2002.
Three men are on trial for Araujo's death, which was charged as a hate crime -- Michael Magidson, Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, all 24. A fourth man, 21-year-old Jaron Nabors, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified against the others.
Merel and Magidson had sexual encounters with the 17-year-old Araujo after meeting her in late summer 2002 and, according to trial testimony, had suspicions about her gender after comparing notes. Cazares says he was not part of the attack and only helped bury the body out of loyalty to his friends. His attorney, Tony Serra, told jurors Cazares did not kill Araujo. "I want you to feel for him. He's not a bad person," Serra said. "Don't make this a miscarriage of justice. You want to look in the mirror a year from now and say, 'I did the right thing.' There's reasonable doubt based on my client's testimony alone."
Magidson's attorney, who was expected to make his closing argument Wednesday, has presented a crime-of-passion defense for his client, saying he acted irrationally after finding out he unwittingly had sex with a man.
Jurors have the option of acquittal, first- or second-degree murder or manslaughter. First-degree murder carries a sentence of 25 years to life and manslaughter a maximum of 11 years. If jurors find the case was a hate crime, as alleged, four more years would be added.
Lamiero described manslaughter as occurring in the face of a provocation so great that an ordinary person might be driven to kill, such as a parent lashing out at someone who sexually assaulted his child. Lamiero said some might take issue with Araujo's behavior, but this case doesn't fit that definition of manslaughter.
"Sometimes people commit manslaughter, sometimes, but in groups?" the prosecutor said. "People who join together and fuel each other in a common goal to kill together -- do they commit manslaughter? Is that something that we're willing to accept as a society?"
But Serra asked jurors not to see themselves as sending a message to the community, not to "have vengeance and not logic as your guidepost."
Nabors told jurors that Araujo was wrestled to the floor, slapped and punched. He said Magidson put her in choke holds and kneed her in the head and Merel struck her with a can and skillet. Araujo begged for mercy, but didn't get it; when she began to bleed she was ordered off a couch to keep it clean, Nabors said. Later, she was tied up and carried into the garage to stop blood from getting on the carpet, he said.
Inside the garage, Nabors said he saw Magidson start to pull an end of rope toward Araujo's neck. Nabors said he left the garage at that point but on the drive to the remote spot where they buried the body, Magidson talked about twisting the rope. Cazares, meanwhile, acknowledged hitting Araujo with a shovel, Nabors said.
Serra said Nabors was lying to save himself and reminded jurors at length of inconsistencies between Nabors' trial testimony and some of his earlier statements. "Don't you trust him. Don't you ever convict on his word," Serra said.
The only defendant to testify, Cazares said he believed Araujo was female until well into the assault. He said he walked away after learning she was biologically male and did not see her die. Cazares said he spoke to Merel's older brother, Paul, while he was outside. However, Lamiero pointed out that Serra called Paul Merel as a witness but never asked about the conversation. In response, Serra told jurors he didn't ask because Paul Merel had a shaky memory of things that happened late that night.
In a vivid description of what he thinks happened that night, Lamiero speculated on what might have been going through Magidson's mind. "What are you thinking about as you're looping each loop around her wrists?" he asked. "People don't die instantly when you strangle them to death. It takes time, and I wonder what it was like for Mike as he sat there with a rope wrapped around the neck of another human being squeezing as hard as he could."
He urged jurors to return the same verdict for all three defendants. "It might as well have been all of them that squeezed that rope," he said.

An editorial by Dylan Vade - Sunday, May 30, 2004

Don't talk to me about deception.
Gwen Araujo, a beautiful young transgender woman, was brutally beaten to death the fall of 2002. In the trial of three men accused of murder in her slaying, defense attorneys Tony Serra and Michael Thorman are using the "transgender/gay panic" defense. Their argument essentially is that Gwen deserved to be killed because she deceived, and thus stole the heterosexuality of the men she had sex with. No one deserves to be killed for deception.
But in Gwen's case, there was no deception. Gwen was just being herself. In a world in which we are all told we have to be more feminine or more masculine -- Gwen was wise enough to know herself and brave enough to be herself. That is beautiful. She should be our role model. Instead, transgender people are seen as deceivers. The word "deception" comes up often in our lives. I will share one of my experiences with deception. I am a female-to-male transgender person. One day, I flirted with someone I assumed to be a gay man, got his number and later went over to his place. He opened the door, and we kissed. A couple of minutes later, I came out to him as transgender. I did it casually. I do not make a big deal out of it, because to me it is not a big deal. It was a big deal to him. He immediately stopped being interested and told me that I had deceived him. He said: "I thought you were just a cute gay guy." He said that I should have told him that I am transgender and what my genitalia look like before he invited me to his place. I was not hurt, aside from my feelings. I was lucky.
What I did not say to him then, but wished I had:
"You deceived me. All this time I thought you were just a cute transgender guy. You really should have told me you are a nontransgender person. I cannot believe that you did not tell what your genitalia look like. I cannot go through with this. I would have never come over to your place had I known. "Yes, you are right. I did not wear a T-shirt with a picture of my genitalia emblazoned on it. But, honey, neither did you. If we, as humans, decide that proper dating etiquette requires us all to disclose the exact shape and size of our genitalia before we get someone's number, then, sure, maybe I will go along with that. "You deceived me. You should have told me that you are transphobic. You should have told me that your head is chock full of stereotypes of what it means to be a 'real man' and a 'real woman.' You should have told me that when you look at someone, you immediately make an assumption about the size and shape of that person's genitalia, and that you get really upset if your assumption is off.'' Why do some folks feel that transgender people need to disclose their history and their genitalia, and nontransgender people do not? When you first meet someone and they are clothed, you never know exactly what that person looks like. And when you first meet someone, you never know that person's full history. Why do only some people have to describe themselves in detail -- and others do not? Why are some nondisclosures seen as actions and others utterly invisible? Actions. Gwen Araujo was being herself, openly and honestly. No, she did not wear a sign on her forehead that said "I am transgender, this is what my genitalia look like." But her killers didn't wear a sign on their foreheads saying, "We might look like nice high school boys, but really, we are transphobic and are planning to kill you." That would have been a helpful disclosure. Transgender people do not deceive. We are who we are.

Dylan Vade, co-director of the Transgender Law Center, is a lawyer and holds a Ph.D. in philosophy. Sondra Solovay, director of Beyond Bias, contributed to the article.

The three men accused of killing transgender teenager Gwen Araujo should be found guilty of first-degree murder, but no matter what the jury thinks of the crime, it should "convict them all of the same thing or convict them of nothing," a prosecutor said Tuesday. "These men acted together as a team whose express purpose was to kill another human being. They each had a part," prosecutor Chris Lamiero said in his closing argument, which lasted more than two hours. "Michael Magidson may have strangled the life out of (Araujo), but it might as well have been all of them." Magidson, Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, all 24, are on trial for murder and a hate crime in Araujo's death. A fourth man, 21-year-old Jaron Nabors, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified against the others in exchange for an 11-year sentence. According to Nabors, the 17-year-old Araujo -- who had been born Edward Araujo but lived as a young woman -- was beaten and strangled in a vicious attack after the men learned she was biologically male at a party in the early morning hours of Oct. 4, 2002. Lamiero began his statement by asking the jury not to think of Araujo as "a faceless, lifeless name on a piece of paper." "Eddie Araujo was a real human being. He laughed, and he cried. He had a family and friends who loved him," Lamiero said. "In the matter of a few hours, Eddie was tried and convicted and executed. He was not granted an opportunity to appeal." Attorneys for Merel and Magidson have suggested that if they are guilty of any crime it is manslaughter because the slaying was committed in the heat of passion after the men learned they had been "duped" into having sex with a man. Both defendants had had anal or oral sex with Araujo before the night of the killing. Cazares has gone further, saying he did not participate in the killing and helped only to bury the body out of loyalty to his friends. During the trial, Cazares testified on his own behalf that he tried to help Araujo and was outside smoking a cigarette during the slaying. Cazares' attorney, J. Tony Serra, said in his closing argument that prosecutors have the weakest case against Cazares. "My client's testimony alone raises reasonable doubt," said Serra. "He's shy, he's inarticulate, but goddammit, he told you the truth." Lamiero had argued that Cazares lied on the witness stand. As for the manslaughter defense, Lamiero argued that even though all of the men might have been angry, the killing was still carefully planned and carried out. Lamiero said manslaughter is characterized by a provocation that is so great that an ordinary person would be impulsively driven to kill, such as the case of a parent who discovers a neighbor is molesting his child. Even if someone disapproves of Araujo's behavior, this case doesn't fit the definition of manslaughter, he said. "Sometimes people commit manslaughter, but do groups, do mobs?" Lamiero said. "Is that something we're willing to accept as a society?" The jury of eight men and four women has the option of choosing first- or second-degree murder, manslaughter or acquittal. A conviction of first-degree murder carries a sentence of 25 years to life, while manslaughter carries a maximum of 11 years. Conviction of the hate-crime enhancement would mean four more years are added to the sentence. Serra asked the members of the jury not to consider their verdict as a message to society, asking them to apply logic instead of vengeance to their deliberations. Serra spent much of the afternoon cataloging what he called a series of lies told by Nabors, the prosecution's star witness, including Nabors' own admission on the witness stand that in the past he has had a "character flaw" for stretching the truth. "Can you dare convict a person on a word of a witness who says he has a character flaw for honesty? He's dishonest," Serra said. "He is very intelligent. He is very devious. Don't you trust him. Don't you ever convict on his word." Serra will continue his closing argument this morning, followed by attorneys for Merel and Magidson. The case is expected to go to the jury as early as today.

HAYWARD -- The 12 jurors deliberating in the trial of three men charged with murdering a transgender teenager in Newark in October 2002 concluded their first full week of deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict. The jury of eight men and four women, who began deliberating June 3, concluded their deliberations for the week at 2 p.m. Thursday. They are not deliberating on Fridays and will reconvene Monday.

The jury has been relatively quiet so far, with its one major request being a court reporter's reading of the testimony of the pathologist who performed the teen's autopsy. The pathologist concluded the teen died of asphyxiation due to strangulation associated with blunt trauma to the head.

Michael Magidson of Fremont and Newark residents Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, all 24, are charged with murder and a hate-crime enhancement in the slaying of the 17-year-old -- who was born Eddie Araujo but was living as a young woman named Gwen at the time of the killing. The prosecution contends that the three defendants beat and strangled Araujo after learning the teen was anatomically male. Magidson and Merel had been sexually intimate with Araujo while believing the teen to be a 19-year-old woman named Lida, according to testimony. The four men later buried the body in the Sierra foothills, according to testimony. A fourth man in the case, Jaron Nabors, pleaded guilty last year to voluntary manslaughter in a plea deal that required him to take the witness stand against his former friends. Nabors will be sentenced to 11 years. Magidson, Merel and Cazares face potential sentences of 29 years to life if convicted as charged.

Chronicle Staff Report
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the trial of three men accused of killing transgendered Newark teen Gwen Araujo after jurors said they could not agree whether to convict the men of first-degree murder.
Judge Harry Sheppard said he believed that the jury was "hopelessly deadlocked" after the jury foreman told him the panel of eight men and four women have been "unable to pass over the point of reasonable doubt. In my personal opinion, further deliberations would not yield a verdict." The panel had been deliberating for the better part of 10 days. Sheppard declared a mistrial after asking each juror whether they were sure the panel could not reach a verdict regarding Michael Magidson, 23, of Fremont, and Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, both 24 and from Newark. The three men stand accused of fatally beating and strangling Gwen Araujo, 17, who was born a boy but lived and identified as a young woman, on Oct. 4, 2002.
Jurors deadlocked on the first degree murder charges against the three men, with seven voting to convict Magidson and two jurors voting to convict Merel and Cazares. Because they could not acquit the three men of first-degree murder, the judge would not allow them to consider whether the men were guilty of the lesser charges of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Prosecutor Chris Lamiero asked the jury to find the three men guilty of first- degree murder in the killing, which occurred after it was revealed at a party that Araujo was biologically male. Defense attorneys for Magidson and Merel argued the killing was not murder, but manslaughter provoked by the men's rage at learning they were duped into having sex with a man. A fourth man, Jaron Nabors, was charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for testifying against the other three during the trial. He described a brutal and chaotic attack that followed the revelation of the teenager's biological gender.
Nabors said Araujo was choked, punched, slapped, hit on the head by Merel with a can and a skillet, and later tied up and strangled. Nabors said that he did not witness the killing but that he saw Magidson pull a rope toward her neck. The four men then buried Araujo's body in the El Dorado National Forest.
Defense attorneys attacked Nabors' credibility, arguing that he lied to get a sweetheart plea deal. Cazares testified in his own defense that he tried to help Araujo, that he was outside smoking a cigarette when the killing occurred and that it was Nabors whom he saw emerge from the garage saying "She's dead."

For more complete details and commentary, visit: http://gwenaraujo.blogspot.com/