Two Teenaged Killers Sentenced To Decades In Prison

The Los Angeles Times reports that Brandon McInerney was sentenced yesterday by a judge to 21 years in prison (without the possibility of early release due to the terms of the plea agreement with prosecutors) for the brutal killing of his middle-school classmate on February 12, 2008 so that he will be almost 39 years old when he leaves prison, having spent more than half his life behind bars.

Lawrence King's father Greg King read a statement in court before the sentencing in which he lambasted various groups and entities:

Though he holds McInerney responsible for shooting his son, King said the school's response since the shooting has been despicable.

District leaders have made no changes in policy or procedures, saying they are unnecessary because the school's staff followed the law in allowing Larry to augment his school uniform with women's accessories. To date, no formal changes have been made, although the school district paid $25,000 toward a $255,000 civil lawsuit settlement for King's family.

"It is obvious the school did something wrong," King spat out at the hearing. "Rather than learning from it and striving to make a safer environment for our children, they hid behind lawyers."

McInerney's neck grew flushed as King spoke. The teenager, whose feet were shackled and who wore a white T-shirt and baggy blue pants, declined to make a statement. But his attorney, Scott Wippert, said his client was remorseful.

"He has stated repeatedly that if he could go back and take back his act, he would do it in a heartbeat,'' Wippert said as his client sat silently. "He lives with this every day, every night."

The attorney said McInerney also apologized to the King family, to his own family and to classmates in the computer lab where he pulled a .22-caliber handgun out of a backpack and shot King at point-blank range. Some of his former classmates were in court Monday, wiping tears from their eyes.

Greg King also addressed his son's killer directly, saying: “You took upon yourself to be a bully and to hate a smaller kid, wanting to be a big man on campus,” Greg King told McInerney. “You have left a hole in my heart where Larry was and it can never be filled.”


Bizarrely, today, just one day after the McInerney sentencing, another teenage killer, Tom Lore Vinson was sentenced to 155(!) years for the accidental killing of 16-year-old high school honor student Melody Ross while shooting at two rival gang members October 31, 2009.

Is what Vinson did 7 time worse than what Brandon McInerney did? Why is his sentence 7 times longer then?

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm!

Lawrence King's Killer Accepts 21-Year Plea Deal

Finally, there is some sense of justice restored to the world. Brandon McInerney, who shot to death his teenaged, openly-gay  classmate Lawrence King at point-blank range on February 12, 2008, has apparently agreed to accept a plea deal which will lead to him serving 21 years in prison. Previously, McInerney had been tried with first-degree murder (with a hate crime enhancement) but the judge was forced to declare a mistrial after multiple jurors declared that they empathized with McInerney's rough home life and disagreed with the decision to try him as an adult because he had committed the crime as a 14-year-old as well as the anti-gay hate crime aspect.

The prosecution had made the decision to re-try McInerney as an adult but had dropped the hate crime enhancement (exactly the wrong decision, I argued).

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The Oxnard teen who shot a gay classmate he believed was flirting with him has agreed to spend the next 21 years in prison, a plea deal that ends a case that drew national attention and ignited debate on how schools should deal with openly gay students.

Brandon McInerney, who was 14 when he pulled a gun out of his backpack and shot Larry King twice in the head in 2008, has already served nearly four years in jail and would be released by the time he is 38, under terms of the deal.

"Larry had a complicated life, but he did not deserve to be murdered," the youth's father,Greg King, said after a court hearing Monday afternoon.

McInerney’s first trial ended with jurors split between convicting him of voluntary manslaughter and first-degree murder. Several of the jurors have since spoken in favor of a plea bargain, in order to avoid a second trial.

Prosecutors, in initially deciding to try McInerney a second time, had already dropped a key allegation that the shooting was motivated by a hatred of homosexuals, an accusation that several jurors in the original trial said they did not believe.

During the first trial, prosecutors portrayed McInerney as a budding white supremacist who hated homosexuals and was enraged by King's sexuality and aggressive flirtations.

The defense argued that McInerney was the product of a violent and dysfunctional home and had reached an emotional breaking point in response to King's advances.

McInerney was 14 when he carried a .22-caliber handgun to school in a backpack on Feb. 12, 2008, took a seat behind King, 15, and shot him twice in the back of the head.

Gay rights advocates were largely silent after the mistrial. A national gay rights group later said prosecutors should have done the "just and merciful thing" and reached a plea deal in the case.

It's probably the best decision overall to make the case go away. I am satisfied that the brazen killer of an openly gay (or transgender) teen will be serving significant time in jail, thus validating the idea that perpretators of such heinous acts will be prosecuted and punished by the state.

WATCH: Violent Anti-Gay High School Attack Caught On Video

This anti-gay attack happened in Union-Scioto High School in Chilicothe, Ohio, which has no anti-bullying legislation or hate crime law inclusive of sexual orientation or gender identity. The bully was apparently suspended for three days. As, Dan Savage says, "what does it take to get expelled?" For more information about who to contact to make sure this crime gets prosecuted by the authorities contact:

Chief Roger Moore 

28 North Paint Street  

Chillicothe, Ohio 45601 

Phone: (740) 773-1191

WonderMan has an update on his blog that charges are expected to be charged soon, but that the bully claims he has "mental problems" and "zoned out."

Prosecutor Decides To Retry Brandon McInerney (As An Adult)

Lawrence King (left) and the person who shot him to death, Brandon McInerney 

Well, this is interesting news. Last month a mistrial was declared in the first trial of Brandon McInerney for the murder of Lawrence King. MadProfessah was ashamed at the result and implored prosecutors to retry McInerney for the point blank shooting of his middle school classmate in February 2008.

Today comes word that prosecutors will again try McInerney as an adult for the crime, but will drop the hate crime charge, basically making the wrong choice TWICE. Many LGBT activists like myself insist that the murder was a hate crime, because it is clear that McInerney targeted King for death because of his gender identity. However, since both boys were under 18 years old (McInerney had barely turned 14 at the time of the crime) there are also many LGBT activists who disagree with the decision to try him as an adult.

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

Prosecutors on Wednesday announced their intention to pursue a murder charge in adult court against 17-year-old Brandon McInerney. However, a hate crime charge will be dropped, Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox said.

Last month, a judge declared a mistrial after a nine-woman, three-man panel couldn't reach a unanimous decision on the degree of McInerney's guilt for killing 15-year-old Larry King. After a series of votes, seven jurors were in favor of a voluntary manslaughter conviction, while five others supported either first-degree or second-degree murder.

Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell set a Nov. 21 trial date, according to Fox, but it's unclear if it will be held in Ventura County. The first trial was moved to Los Angeles County due to pretrial publicity.

McInerney was 14 in February 2008, when he is accused of killing King at E.O. Green Junior High School during a computer lab class.

Prosecutors contend McInerney embraced a white supremacist philosophy that sees homosexuality as an abomination. Police found Nazi-inspired drawings and artifacts at his house, and a white supremacist expert testified at trial the hate-filled ideology was the reason for the killing.

Authorities maintained the shooting was premeditated and deserving of a murder conviction. During the trial, Fox noted at least six people heard McInerney make threats against King in the days leading to the shooting.

Defense attorneys acknowledged that McInerney was the shooter but explained that he had reached an emotional breaking point after King made repeated, unwanted sexual advances. They also have argued that juvenile court would be the best venue to try their client.

The reactions from the LGBT community to this news will not be good.

WATCH: Local TV Coverage of Anti-Gay Mistrial

The suspected mistrial in the McInerney trial from last night is confirmed. Apparently 7 jurors wanted voluntary manslaughter and 5 wanted murder and neither side was willing to budge to come to a unanimous verdict. Prosecutors have to decide whether to go through the cost and effort of a new trial or to offer a slightly less severe plea bargain. It does look like McInerney will spend at least several years in jail, at least. I personally would be happy with a sentence of 10-25 years.

I disagree with those who say that both young men were victims of bad circumstances. Bullsh*t! One of them is dead, killed at the hands of another, in a purely premeditated fashion. He needs to pay a severe price for such heinous actions.

SHAME: Hung Jury In Trial Of Gay Teen's Killer

Madness! Apparently the jury in the trial of Brandon McInerney for the killing of teen age Lawrence King who was widely perceived as gay (even though he was probably transgender) is unlikely to reach a verdict even though they have only been deliberating since last Friday.

The defense has released all sorts of information to paint the confessed killer in as a favorable a light as possible with the jury, including the fact that the fellow teenager was abused by his alcoholic and violent father (who is now dead). The defense has also put the onus on King, claiming that he was the aggressor in the relationship with McInerney, a "gay panic defense" which has sent LGBT blogs hissing with anger, and may be illegal under California law.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Jurors weighing the fate of an Oxnard teenager accused of killing a gay classmate indicated Thursday that it is unlikely they will be able to reach a verdict in the high-profile case.

But the judge hearing the case indicated it is likely he will ask jurors to continue their deliberations, even though they have already taken votes – two of which were 8 to 4 and a third was 9 to 3. Jurors did not indicate whether they were leaning toward guilt or acquittal.

Jurors in the case, in which Brandon McInerney fatally shot 15-year-old Larry King in a junior high school computer lab, were ordered earlier Thursday to continue deliberating despite the failed votes.

If there’s a mistrial, it would bring to a close a trial that has been followed closely by gay-rights groups that have fought hard to protect gay and transgendered students from campus bullying.

But as the weeks of testimony continued and a more nuanced portrait emerged of what was happening at E.O. Green Junior High before the shooting, it also raised a host of thorny questions.

The prosecution says it was a calculated murder carried out in part because McInerney was exploring white supremacist ideology and didn't like homosexuals.

Defense attorneys painted a different picture, that of a bright but abused 14-year-old who snappedafter being sexually harassed by King.

Asked Thursday by Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell when it was possible the jury could reach a decision with more time, the forewoman of the panel said “I suppose it’s possible.”

She indicated, though, that it was seemed “unlikely” jurors would come to an agreement in the case.

Jurors also asked for a clarification in jury instructions pertaining to “what is a person of average disposition” and “what does it mean to act rashly.”

The jury began deliberating Friday, weighing eight weeks of testimony in a trial that included nearly 100 witnesses. Many of those testifying were students and teachers at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard who saw tensions on campus rising after King began coming to school dressed in makeup and girl's boots.

If it is true that the jury is unable to reach a verdict and McInerney will not face any criminal sanctions that will be a devastating loss for LGBT youth in California and around the country.

Hat/tip to TowleRoad.

Jury Deliberating Anti-Gay Hate Crime Verdict

The trial of Brandon McInerney for the point-blank shooting (twice!) of fellow teenager Lawrence King has now reached the jury deliberation stage.

Towleroad posts the AP report:

"Jurors began their discussions on Friday to determine whether 17-year-old Brandon McInerney is guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of 15-year-old Larry King at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard. The panel is expected to deliberate for only a couple of hours because a juror has a prior commitment...McInerney has pleaded not guilty to one count each of murder and a hate crime. If convicted, he faces more than 50 years in prison. Jurors also can consider a conviction of voluntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum 21-year term."

MadProfesssah has been following the story of this case very carefully, from the reports of the shooting, to the debate over whether the death penalty should be a factor and jury selection and now the trial itself.

Update on Brandon McInerney Gay Hate Crime Trial

Gay Teen Murder Defendant's Brother Talks About Testimony: MyFoxLA.com

The murder trial of Brandon McInerney is continuing in Chatsworth and there have been some explosive testimony since last we checked in. 14-year-old McInerney, now 17, fatally shot his 15-year-old classmate Lawrence (Leticia) King twice in the head on February 12, 2008 when both boys attended E.O. Green Junior High School in Ventura County, California. McInerney is being tried as an adult (which I do not agree with) and is being charged with first-degree murder in a trial that began July 5, 2011.

The latest revelations are that Brandon McInerney was apparently repeatedly physically and sexually abused by his father.

Brandon McInerney was molested by a relative as a boy, a family secret that his older half brother didn't learn until two weeks after McInerney shot a gay classmate to death in February 2008, the half brother told jurors in a Chatsworth courtroom Wednesday.

James Bing testified that McInerney’s father cried hysterically as he revealed the molestation that occurred when Brandon was about 9 years old.

The older McInerney was upset because the family had dealt with the problem internally, sending the relative away for years, instead of reporting it to police and getting Brandon help, Bing told the courtroom.

McInerney’s father, who is now dead, believed the memory of the molestation was what caused his son to react so violently when Larry King began dressing like a girl and flirting with McInerney at their Oxnard junior high school, Bing said.

[...]

When McInerney’s father died in 2009, coroner's officials found alcohol and drugs in his system. Bing said his stepfather was frequently high on drugs and was sadistic.

He once put soap into a sock and beat the boys with it for an offense that later turned out to have been committed by someone else, Bing testified.

Billy McInerney poured Tabasco sauce down's the boys' throats when they were sleeping and would pull down their pants in front of their friends, disparaging the size of their genitals, Bing said.

"He was a mean, nasty person,'' Bing said.

How convenient that the alleged sexual molestation was never reported to anyone else outside the family so it will be different to corroborate. James Bing is Brandon McInerney's half-brother (same father different mother) and is the person speaking in the video given at the top of this post. If I were a juror I would take the testimony of a family member of the accused with more than a grain of salt.

What would you b willing to tell the court if a member of your extended family was accused of a crime for which they faced 53 years to life in prison if found guilty?

Rash Of Violent Anti-Gay Hate Crimes In Long Beach

Long Beach has been the location of at least three attacks on gay men in the last two weeks.  Long Beach is the third largest city in California and is well-known for a prominent LGBT community. They have an openly gay, Latino city councilman named Robert Garcia who is quoted saying that "These incidents have no place in our city."

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Avila, who was walking ahead of the group, passed a man arguing with a woman on the sidewalk. The man stopped long enough to use a slur against Avila as he passed, he said.
[...]
The man ran away, but Avila and another friend chased him several blocks until police arrived, he said.

The suspect, Jorge Jhovanoy Ibarrias, 21, was arrested and charged with felony battery in addition to a hate crime. He has pleaded not guilty, authorities said.

Three days later, near East 4th Street and Orange Avenue, another man was beaten and called slurs. That case is being investigated as a battery and a possible hate incident, though not a hate crime, Fernandez said. The difference, he said, is that police do not believe that hatred specifically against gays was the initial motivation.

Four days after the second attack, on Sundayabout 1:30 a.m., several men walking on Broadway, two blocks from the site of the initial incident, were approached by another group that used slurs against them, police said. A fight broke out before the groups separated. But the group that made the insults returned shortly afterward with several other people and assaulted three of the men who had been walking down the street, police said.

Hat/tip to Rod 2.0 who posted the video of a local ABC affiliate coverage of the story shown above.

CNN Covers Larry King/Brandon McInerney Trial

Hat/tip to Rod 2.0.

Larry King Murder Trial Opens With Anti-Gay Arguments

The long-awaited trial of Brandon McInerney for the February 2008 execution-style murder of Lawrence King opened on July 5th with the prosecution and defense painting very different pictures of the two teenagers involved.

The los Angeles Times is covering the trial (quite well) and started by summarizing prosecutor Maeve Fox's opening statement.

Fox, a veteran Ventura County prosecutor, led the jury through a 90-minute outline of the case, starting by flashing a large photograph of a cherubic-faced King on a projector. She next showed the defendant's booking photos, portraying a tall and muscular McInerney with shaved head, taken within hours of the killing.

McInerney was angry with King, she said, because King had decided he was no longer going to take the bullying that he had been subjected to for years. Slight and "very effeminate," King had only girls for friends and was shunned by the boys, Fox said.

But after King was removed from his home and placed into a children's shelter, he underwent a change in attitude, the prosecutor said. He became more confident in school and started wearing high-heeled boots, makeup and jewelry along with his uniform. School rules did not prohibit this.

King knew it was within his rights to assert a budding feminine identity, and he took full advantage, she said.

"Larry King for the first time in his life wasn't taking it anymore," Fox said. "He started to give people what I prefer to call the proverbial chin, only it was more profane."

The defense attorney is Scott Wippert who has already been held in contempt by the judge for mentioning McInerney's statements to police that Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell had previously ruled would not be heard by the jury.

Wippert's 30-minute opening statement focused on both of the boys' troubled backgrounds and on McInerney's inability to deal with the humiliation of having an openly gay boy flirt with him at school. In contrast to the district attorney's slide show presentation, Wippert simply stood before the jury and talked, occasionally consulting his notes.

McInerney reached an "emotional breaking point" and saw no other way to stop the sexual harassment by King, Wippert said. His own violent and dysfunctional family offered no help, and school officials had made it clear that King was permitted to flaunt his sexuality, even if it was disruptive, the defense attorney said.

He called the prosecution's allegation that McInerney was acting out of white supremacist beliefs a red herring. He said that the Nazi iconography and copies of Hitler's speeches found in the boy's room were related to his work on a World War II paper.

There was no hate crime, just the frustration of an adolescent with nowhere to turn, he told the jury. "Why would a student complain when everyone knows about it and no one is going to do anything about it?" he posited.

Wippert suggested that a psychologist will testify that McInerney was in a dissociative state at the time of the shooting, not in touch with the reality of what he was doing. He also told the jury there is evidence that King had been making inappropriate sexual comments at school since the fifth grade.

"He did shoot Larry King," Wippert said of his client. "He did this out of a heat of passion, and that is voluntary manslaughter."

MadProfessah has been following this case very closely for years. Involuntary manslaughter would be a travesty of a result. I am a strong opponent of the death penalty and also do not approve of trying 14-year-olds as adults but since California passed Proposition 21 passed allowing the practice McInerney should be tried to the fullest extent of the law. There is no question McInerney executed Larry King (with a gun, no less!), and that the boy's sexual orientation and gender identity was involved in Mcinerney's decision to end Larry King's life.

BART Settles Grant Wrongful Death Case For $2.8M

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has agreed to pay Oscar Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson $1.3 million to settle a civil lawsuit over the unnecessary death of her son at the armed hands of former BART employee Johannes Mehserle who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served less than a paltry year in prison for the shameful act.

BART had previously agreed to pay out $1.5 million to Oscar Grant's 5-year old daughter Tatiana Grant last year.

The San Francisco Examiner reports:

“No amount of money could replace Oscar. Not $1 or $100 million,” Wanda Johnson, Grant’s mother, said during a news conference in Oakland. “My heart feels broken for the loss of my son.

“It didn’t have to be this way.”

Grant was fatally wounded after being shot by BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle while laying facedown on the platform of the Fruitvale station on New Year’s Day 2009. Mehserle had claimed that he thought he was firing his taser when he shot Grant by mistake with his gun.

Grant’s mother filed a $50 million lawsuit against the agency for its role in the death of Grant. On Tuesday, the two sides agreed to a settlement that will pay Johnson $1.3 million, according to BART spokesman Linton Johnson.

“No matter what anyone’s opinion of the case may be, the sad fact remains that this incident has left Wanda Johnson without a son,” BART board member Lynette Sweet said. “We’re working hard to make the Police Department the best it can be for our officers, our customers and our community. This settlement is critical in our efforts to move forward.”

This will be the second and final settlement paid out to a member of Grant’s family since his death. In January 2010, BART delivered a $1.5 million settlement to Grant’s then-5-year-old daughter, Tatiana.

So now we know how much a black man's life is worth: 220 days in jail and $2.8 million dollars. Disgusting.

Jury Selection In Gay Teen Murder Trial Begins

On February 12, 2008 teenager Brandon Mcinerney shot fellow teenager Lawrence King in the back of the head during an early morning class at E.O. Green Elementary School in Oxnard. Now, more than three years later a jury is being selected in the murder trial, as the defense has rejected all plea deals.

The Ventury County Star reports:

Defense attorney Scott Wippert said the plea bargain was "absurd and very far from the truth," and that his client is guilty of voluntary manslaughter and not premeditated first or second degree murder.

Wippert said the chance his client would get paroled whether he served 25 or 53 years is slim to none.

"The plea offer they are making is very illusory," Wippert said. "They are trying to convince the public by making such an offer that they are looking out for Brandon and they are giving him a chance. If they wanted to give him a chance, they would give him a determinant offer."

Wippert said his client was pushed by a tumultuous home life and constant sexual harassment from King.

"These were two very troubled young men," Wippert said of his client and King. "That doesn't justify what (Brandon) did, but it explains how distraught he was when the constant harassment occurred at the school and the overall anguish in his life that led to this horrific act. That is what created the heat of passion in his mind. He committed a horrific act, but outside of that, he is a really good kid." 

Amazing. Somehow Lawrence King is going to be made into the aggressor, even though Brandon went home and got his dad's gun and put a bullet in the brain of a classmate, in front of 25 other students and the teacher. I understand the defense wants to make this case about King's actions and not Mcinerney's, but surely there are some places even a defense attorney won't go? We'll see.

The LGBT community will be watching this case very, very closely.