Man Guilty in Shepard Slaying, Could Get Death Penalty

A high school dropout who blamed drugs, alcohol and an unwanted sexual advance for his crime was convicted Wednesday in Laramie, Wyo., of felony murder in the beating death of gay student Matthew Shepard.

The jury rejected the prosecution’s first-degree murder charge against Aaron McKinney, 22, finding that the brutal attack was not premeditated. Felony murder was applied in the case because McKinney was also convicted of aggravated robbery and kidnapping. McKinney betrayed little emotion as the verdict from a jury of seven men and five women was read in the Albany County courthouse.

The onetime roofer faces the death penalty or life in prison when the trial moves to the sentencing phase, which begins today.

McKinney and his friend Russell Henderson lured Shepard, a freshman at the University of Wyoming, from a local bar, drove him to a remote spot and robbed and beat him. The two tied Shepard, 21, to a fence and left him for dead. They took $20, two credit cards and Shepard’s patent leather shoes.

Shepard was found 18 hours later and died Oct. 12, 1998, in a Colorado hospital. He had never regained consciousness.

Henderson pleaded guilty last April and, in a plea bargain, is serving two life sentences.

The death of the college student ignited national debate over hate crimes and violence against homosexuals. Shepard, a political science major interested in human rights, is now synonymous with a number of gay rights causes.

David M. Smith of the Human Rights Campaign, one of several gay rights groups monitoring the trial, said the verdict offered justice “but certainly no joy. . . . The verdict will do nothing to bring Matthew back, but hopefully it will send a message to would-be gay bashers that there are serious consequences involved with violent anti-gay behavior.”

Others following the trial noted that the jury’s rejection of the first-degree murder charge signaled something of a victory for the defense and may indicate that the panel is reluctant to impose the death penalty.

The jurors, some of whom had cried after being shown graphic crime scene and coroner’s photographs, deliberated for 10 hours, beginning Tuesday, after hearing emotional closing arguments. Prosecutor Cal Rerucha told the jury: “Matthew Shepard was not an animal on a fence. Matthew Shepard was a human being.” He called McKinney a savage and “wolf” who preyed on the lamb-like Shepard.

Rerucha presented his case in a matter-of-fact tone and has maintained that Shepard’s death was the result of a robbery gone wrong. He argued that McKinney did plan the murder, noting that at one point during the beating he asked Shepard if he could read the license plate on McKinney’s truck. Shepard said he could and recited the plate’s numbers.

McKinney then resumed beating Shepard with the butt of a gun, proving, Rerucha said, that he murdered Shepard to prevent him from identifying his attacker to authorities.

During closing arguments, Dion Custis returned to the defense theme that McKinney was provoked into “five minutes of emotional rage and chaos” after Shepard grabbed McKinney’s genitals and licked his ear while in McKinney’s truck. Custis said that McKinney’s experience of being molested as a child and a youthful sexual experience with a male cousin left him angry and confused.

Custis admitted that his client pummeled Shepard, but he characterized McKinney as having been on an alcohol and methamphetamine binge and argued that Shepard’s alleged sexual overture on the night of the attack triggered McKinney’s murderous reaction.

“He is not a coldblooded murderer, ladies and gentlemen, he reacted,” Custis told the jury. “There was no thought process.”

The public defender often referred to McKinney, a high school dropout, by his nickname, Dopey, and told the jury, “He’s not that bright.”

The defense ran afoul of state District Judge Barton Voigt during opening arguments when co-counsel Jason Tangeman unveiled his controversial defense. Without calling it by name, Tangeman laid the groundwork for the so-called gay panic defense, which holds that a sexual advance from a homosexual may provoke a violent reaction. Such defenses have been used, with mixed success, to reduce charges from first-degree murder to manslaughter.

The defense was seeking just such an outcome, the only way to ensure that McKinney would escape the death penalty. Although Voigt ruled the defense was tantamount to temporary insanity, which is not allowed in Wyoming, that evidence will be allowed in the sentencing phase. The defense will present testimony that mitigates or seeks to explain the motive for the crime, while the prosecution will call witnesses who will illustrate the horror of the crime.

Judy and Dennis Shepard, Matthew’s parents, are likely to testify for the prosecution.

It is rare that a jury in Wyoming ever considers imposing a death penalty. Since capital punishment was reinstated in Wyoming in 1977, only one person has been put to death, in 1992. There are currently only two men on death row. Many trial observers say it will be difficult to get a death penalty verdict in liberal Albany County.