Trial Begins in Gay Man’s Beating Death
An Alabama construction worker accused of helping beat a gay man to death with an ax handle was at the scene during the killing but did not participate, his lawyer said at the start of his murder trial Tuesday.
“That boy is not a killer,” defense attorney William Hill said during his opening statement, describing Charles Butler, 21, who was charged with murder in the Feb. 19 slaying of Billy Jack Gaither, 34.
The killing, classified as a hate crime, drew national attention and was condemned by President Clinton as “heinous and cowardly.”
Police said Butler and Steve Mullins, 25, beat Gaither to death after meeting him at a bar in Rockford, a town of fewer than 500 in rural eastern Alabama between Birmingham and Montgomery.
The killers then set fire to his body and dumped it alongside Peckerwood Creek, authorities said.
Dist. Atty. Fred Thompson said Butler and Mullins had planned to kill Gaither because he was gay.
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