Transgender Murder Trial

[Kris_Roth]

I was watching Court TV today, and saw they have a case in Colorado of an 18 year old Latino MtF Trangender person named Angie Zapata. Angie was born a male, named Justin, who at age 16, decided to dress act female, and adopted the female name of Angie. He/she met a 31 year old man on Mocospace.com around July 2008, and after a brief sexual encounter, the man in question discovered Angie's true gender when she left her apartment, leaving this guy alone. When Angie returned to her apartment, the guy beat her up and killed her with a fire extinguisher. They think the motive was he was threatened by his own homophobic beliefs/sexuality by the 'girl' he thought he saw on the popular online chat site. I hope the guy goes to jail. That is just uncalled for.

[AmbushCat]

I don't know what's worse; that the crime took place to start with, or that they actually devote TV programming to this sort of thing.

[Gee-chan]

You have a channel devoted to court? Wow.......I had no idea....

Oh well, this is just another case showing just how stupid, egocentric and shallow human beings are.....This sort of thing is the reason I gave up on them a long time ago.

[AmbushCat]

I'm of the mind that humanity as a whole is already warped beyond reason. There are some genuinely decent people here and there, but it's kind of like searching for a lit candle in heavy fog; you know it's there, but you have a lot of trouble locating it.

[Kris_Roth]

Well, the closing arguements are going on right now, and it is day 5 in Greely, Colorado. The defendant, Allen Andrade, 31, is accused of killing 18 Year old Justin Zapata, who is a Latino MtF Transgendered person. Justin adopted female mannerisms, and a girl's name, Angie. The channel I'm watching is Tru TV, or Court TV. The prosecution is trying to say that the defendant was threatened by "Angie's" sexuality. I mean, they knew Andrade was on the Bisexual side of Mocospace.com, where he found "Angie's" profile.

[Mitera Nikkou]

Well, while murder is wrong, no matter which way you slice it (no pun intended; no, really), I'll play a bit of devil's advocate (I think): would it have happened if they had been more open about themselves? I mean, discovering tricks and deceptions can set people off, whether or not if they would have been kosher about it, had they known before the fact.

[Kris_Roth]

In the case of the State of Colorado v. Allen Andrade, the jury found Allen Andrade guilty of 1st degree murder with Hate Crime specification (for killing Justin/Angie Zapata), identity theft, grand theft (stole Justin/Angie's car and purses and tried to give the purses to his ex-girlfriend. Allen Andrade has been sentenced to Life in Prison with no chance of parole....I guess they figured he was using Mocospace.com to specifically lure someone vulnerable like Justin/Angie into a false sense of security.

[AmbushCat]

Looks like you got your wish.