Jury selection in the murder trial of
the man accused of killing a transgender woman last July in Colorado
is set to begin on Tuesday, reports the Denver Post.
Eighteen-year-old Angie Zapata
self-identified as a woman since 2003 but remained pre-op at the
time of her death.
Allen Ray Andrade, 31, has confessed to
the brutal crime and says he killed out of hate, police allege.
Andrade and Zapata briefly dated after
meeting on an Internet dating site. According to Andrade's arrest
affidavit, Zapata performed oral sex on him in her apartment on July
15. Andrade said he grew suspicious of Zapata's sexual identity
because she would not let him touch her and they slept in separate
rooms that night.
The next evening, Andrade confronted
Zapata. He beat her first with his fists and then with a fire
extinguisher after discovering she was a biological male. And he
beat her a second time with the fire extinguisher when he realized
she wasn't quite dead.
Police say Andrade has admitted he was
motivated to kill Zapata because she was transgender, adding “all
gay things need to die.”
Most of Andrade's confession, however,
has already been thrown out by Weld County District Court Judge
Marcelo Kopcow. Kopcow says police should have ended their
interrogation of Andrade once he said he wanted to stop talking.
Andrade is charged with first-degree
murder and a hate crime. It is the first Colorado case to use the
state's gender identity hate crime law, which adds an additional 18
months to a conviction. Sexual orientation and transgender
protections were added to an existing law in 2005.
Last week, an Onondaga County, New York
grand jury ruled the murder of twenty-two-year-old transgender
Letiesha
Green was motivated by hate, possibly adding 5 years to the
murderer's prison sentence.
A public information campaign based on
the Zapata murder was launched last week. A coalition of about 50
pro-gay and anti-violence groups are behind the effort that calls on
Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard Act. The bill would add sexual
orientation and gender identity to federal hate crime law. Members
of Zapata's family were featured in the End Hate campaign that
combines full-page newspaper ads along with a strong Internet
component.
On the Net: The End Hate campaign is at
www.angiezapata.com.