| Gwen Amber Rose Araujo | |
|---|---|
| Born | née Edward Araujo, Jr. February 24, 1985 Newark, California, U.S. |
| Died | October 3, 2002 (aged 17) Newark, California, U.S. |
| Known for | Transgender murder victim |
Gwen Amber Rose Araujo[1] (Gwen Araujo) (February 24, 1985 – October 3, 2002), born Edward Araujo, Jr., an American teenage pre-operative transgender woman, was murdered in Newark, California, in October 2002.[2] She was killed by four men, with two of whom she had been sexually intimate, who beat and strangled her after discovering she was transgender.[3][4][5] Two of the defendants were convicted of second-degree murder,[6] but not convicted on the requested hate crime enhancements. The other two defendants pleaded guilty or no contest to voluntary manslaughter. In at least one of the trials, a trans panic defense - an extension of the gay panic defense - was employed.[6][7]
The crime received widespread national and international attention and prompted some authors to write about the bearing of homophobia and transphobia on Araujo's murder, along with questioning whether transgender people were being represented fairly and accurately in both mass media and the criminal justice.[7][8][9] Reaction to the case was an impetus for law reform movements in several states.[10][11] The events, including both criminal trials, have been portrayed in a TV movie, A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story.[3][5] The murder was regularly compared to the Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena case and was a rallying cause for the transgender and ultimately the larger LGBT communities.[12][13]
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Araujo, who was going by the name of Gwen Amber Rose Araujo at the time,[14][15] met Michael Magidson, Jose Merél, Jaron Nabors, and Jason Cazares in the summer of 2002.[16] She was reported to have engaged in oral sex with Magidson and anal sex with Merél.[17] She claimed to be menstruating and during sex would push her partners' hands away from her genitalia to prevent them from discovering that she had male sex organs.[18] On October 3, 2002, she attended a party at a house rented by Merél and his brother, Paul Merél.[19][20] Also in attendance at the party were Magidson, Jose Merél, Nabors, Cazares, Paul Merél, Paul Merél's girlfriend Nicole Brown, and Emmanual Merél.
At the party on October 3, 2002 she was discovered, by forced inspection (conducted by Brown[21]), to have male genitalia, following which the men with whom she had had sexual relations became violent. Magidson put Araujo in a chokehold.[22] Later, he punched Araujo in the face and began to choke her, but was pulled off by others.[21] At some point after that, Paul Merél, Emmanuel Merél, and Brown left the house.[22][23] Jose Merél struck Araujo in the head with a can of food and a frying pan.[22][24] Nabors and Cazares left in Magidson's truck to go to Cazares's house to get shovels and a pickax.[22][25]
When Nabors and Cazares returned, Araujo was still conscious and sitting on the couch.[22] At some point, the assault resumed. Magidson kneed Araujo in the head against the living room wall, rendering her unconscious.[22][26] Cazares kicked Araujo.[26] After this, Araujo was taken to the garage of the home. Nabors testified that Magidson strangled her with a rope and that Cazares struck her with a shovel,[16] but Magidson testified that it was Nabors who strangled Araujo and struck her with the shovel,[27] and Cazares testified that he never struck her and did not see Araujo die.[16] Most accounts have Merél cleaning blood out of the carpet at the time that she was strangled. Araujo was then hog-tied, wrapped in a blanket, and placed in the bed of a pick-up truck. They then drove Araujo's body four hours away and buried her near the Sierra Nevada mountains.[28] Araujo's disappearance and murder went unreported for days.[28] It is not clear at what point during this sequence of events Araujo's death occurred. However, the autopsy showed that she died from strangulation associated with blunt force trauma to the head.[17]
The partygoers did not report the crime and the assailants said nothing to anyone about the murder. Two days after Araujo's death, a friend of Jaron Nabors described him as appearing distraught.[14] Nabors, one of the four attackers, led authorities to the grave site in "exchange for his guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter and a promise to testify at the trial."[29][30]
Alameda County Sheriff's Office dispatched four crime scene investigators and two detectives to recover the body from the grave site. The four accused of the murder were: Michael Magidson, 22; Jaron Nabors, 19; José Merél, 22; and Paul Merél, Jose's older brother. Paul Merél was quickly released because his girlfriend came forward to the police telling them that Paul had left that night with her. Paul Merél and his girlfriend were never charged and became witnesses for the prosecution. Jason Cazares was arrested over a month after the other defendants, and only after Nabors implicated Cazares in a letter to Nabors' girlfriend, explaining how he (Nabors) wasn't involved in the killing. Nabors later testified against the other three in a deal with the DA for a lesser charge of manslaughter and an 11-year prison sentence after police monitored a telephone conversation between Nabors and his girlfriend, Delores Ojeda.[31]
Magidson argued that he should not be charged with murder, rather manslaughter at worst, under California law.[32]
Three defendants testified in this trial — and blamed each other as well as Nabors. On 8 September, the jury announced that it had reached verdicts on two of the three defendants. As Judge Harry Sheppard instructed, the verdicts were kept secret.[33]
On 12 September, after the jury announced that it had deadlocked on the third defendant, the verdicts were announced. The defendant on whom the jury had deadlocked was Cazares. Magidson and Merél were each convicted of second-degree murder,[34] but not convicted of the hate crime enhancement allegations.
Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Chris Lamiero, who represented the prosecution in the case, undermined criminal intent by commenting: "Gwen being transgender was not a provocative act. She's who she was. However, I would not further ignore the reality that Gwen made some decisions in her relation with these defendants that were impossible to defend. I don't think most jurors are going to think it's OK to engage someone in sexual activity knowing they assume you have one sexual anatomy when you don't."[35]
At Araujo's mother's request, a judge posthumously changed Araujo's legal name from Eddie to Gwen on June 23, 2004.[36]
On the first anniversary of the murder, Horizons Foundation created the Gwen Araujo Memorial Fund for Transgender Education. The Fund's purpose is to support school-based programs in the nine-county Bay Area that promote understanding of transgender people and issues through annual grants. Through this fund, Araujo's mother and family speak in middle and high schools about transgender awareness and understanding.[37]
A Lifetime Network Movie called A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story, starring J. D. Pardo and Mercedes Ruehl, aired in June 2006. The case was also the subject of a 2007 documentary, Trained in the Ways of Men.[38] This documentary by Michelle Prevost examines the 2002 murder, and aims to debunk the so-called gay-panic (or trans-panic) defense.
The 2011 novel The Butterfly and the Flame by Dana De Young was dedicated in part to Gwen's memory.[39]