Attorney says client should be acquitted in Araujo slaying case

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 8/25/5 | Yomi S. Wronge

[SmithL]

The attorney for one of the defendants accused of killing a Newark transgender teenager said this morning that slaying is a ``classic case of a crime of passion.''

``It was like a bolt of lightning. they were struck and it singed their minds,'' said J. Tony Serra in his closing statement.

Serra insisted his client, Jason Cazares, should be acquitted in the case.

Cazares, and co-defendants Michael Magidson and Jose Merel are on trial for killing 17-year-old Gwen Araujo, who they learned was anatomically a male. Two of them had sex with Gwen.

At the very worst, Serra said Cazares, Magidson and Merel, should receive no greater punishment that Jaron Nabors, who was also arrested, received for agreeing to testify against the other three. Nabors will receive an 11-year prison sentence.

Serra likened the defendants to lobsters in a boiling pot. They were caught in the events and emotions of learning the girl they liked and were intimate with was born male.

``No one can escape, ultimately,'' Serra said.

Put any rational person into that madhouse that existed the night of Oct. 4, 2002, and they would react the same way, he said.

[TheBigB]

Fry them.

And this stupid-ass lawyer, too.

[ncountylee]

Choked for chokes.

[Question_Assumptions]

While I do think this was a crime of passion, it was still at the very least manslaughter and probably second degree murder. They still deserve time in jail, even if they don't face life imprisonment or death.

[tessalu]

I believe it was temporary insanity, and I would let them go. The one who was trying to transgender was making a fool of full grown men deliberately.

[punster]

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Fry them.
And this stupid-ass lawyer, too.

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It does sound like they spent a long time in killing Gwen Araugo. First, the prolonged beating and then using a rope to strangle as the coup de grace.

When a killing is associated with what could be considered torture, the prolonged beating followed by strangulation (remember strangulation requires about 3 minutes of compression of the windpipe), it shows every element of total cold-blooded premeditation.

Of course, these monsters will probably receive the Fred Phelps Medal of Heroism from the Westboro Baptist Church.

[Question_Assumptions]

If it was a quick and immediate one or two hit kill by a single person, I'd believe temporary insanity. I find the idea of temporary insanity lasting as long as this assault took and by multiple people at the same time very hard to believe. And remember that the legal definition of insanity is not simply that a person lost emotional control but that they stopped understanding that what they were doing was wrong. I also find that hard to believe, especially since they tried to cover up what they did.

[Modernman]

If it was a quick and immediate one or two hit kill by a single person, I'd believe temporary insanity. I find the idea of temporary insanity lasting as long as this assault took and by multiple people at the same time very hard to believe.

Yup. Plus, their "crime of passion" defense (not really a defense, just an attempt to get the charge lowered down to manslaughter) doesn't really work. Crimes of passion generally mean flipping out when you catch your wife in bed with another man.

That's not really what happened here.

[Question_Assumptions]

And as I mentioned in another thread, even if this assault had not been fatal, I think that any repeated blows to the head of a person who is already down and unconscious, particularly kicking or stomping, should automatically be considered attempted murder because that's what it is.