Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyFebruary 21st, 2009
A jury in Bartow, Florida, heard evidence this week in the grisly 2007 murder of Ryan Skipper. Joseph Beardon, along with co-defendant William Brown Jr., is accused of robbing and killing Ryan, and dumping his body. Brown will be tried later at a separate trial.
The murder of of the 25-year-old gay man in Wahneta, Florida, has drawn widespread attention, not only for the grisly details of his murder, but also because the family and the LGBT community in Florida has been asked to keep a low profile during the trial. According to OA Online:
Lynn Mulder said Florida Assistant State Attorney Cass Castillo advised him that any conspicuous presence by the gay community, inside the courtroom or demonstrating outside the courthouse, could jeopardize the trial, which began Monday. So the Mulders are asking them to show their support, but silently, unobtrusively. Until the trial is over, they’re being asked to become invisible and voiceless.
On March 14, 2007, Bearden and Brown allegedly killed Ryan by stabbing him more than 20 times and slitting his throat, and leaving his body on a dark, rural road in Wahneta, Florida. The two defendants then took Ryan’s car and bragged of killing him because he was “a faggot.”
According to 265gay.com, several members of the jury were visibly shaken by autopsy photos showing that Ryan’s throat had been slashed and his torso covered with as many as twenty stab wounds. His back and shoulders were covered with blood. Associate Medical Examiner Vera Volnikh testified that Ryan’s wrists and arms also had slashes and deep cuts, indicating that he tried to fight off the attack. Volnikh testified that it was the cut to the throat that killed Ryan.The cut was 3.5 inches deep, tearing through skin, tissue, muscles and, more fatally, an artery. Ryan quickly bled to death within minutes.
Details of the events leading up to the attack are confusing and conflicting. According to testimony by John Kirchoff, a friend of Brown, Bearden had originally planned to rob Ryan at Ryan’s home. But when someone else came home, the two got into Ryan’s car and left. According to Kirchoff, they went to the home of Brown’s uncle where Kirchoff and Brown were staying to try to exchange a broken laptop for drugs. Other accounts dispute this point, saying that Ryan didn’t own a laptop, but that Ryan knew Brown because Brown knew a previous tenant at Ryan’s house.
At some point, Brown and Bearden decided to steal Ryan’s car, so they persuaded Ryan to give them a ride somewhere in Ryan’s new Chevrolet Aveo. When Kirchoff saw Brown again later that night, he had blood on his shirt.
According to Sheriff’s investigators, Bearden and Brown tried to clean and sell the car. But it was too badly soaked with blood to be cleaned and they didn’t have a copy of the car’s title to sell it, so they abandoned it on a dock on Lake Pansy in Winter Haven and set it on fire. The flames only caused minor damage, and investigators were able to retrieve both of their fingerprints from the car.
The defense is expected to present its case next week. Bearden, who is pleading not guilty to charges of robbery and first degree murder, faces the death penalty. The Sheriff’s department describes the incident as a hate crime, but because Bearden already faces the death penalty for first degree murder, adding a hate crimes enhancement will have no bearing on the case. The hate crime classification is not a separate charge but an enhancement during sentencing for existing criminal charges.
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Benjamin
February 21st, 2009
I cannot even begin to imagine why this murder would not be classified as a hate crime. The grisly fashion in which this murder took place with all of the horrific details should tell anyone in their right mind that this was a hate crime. When someone goes out and either injures or kills someone for money their motive is typically to get the money and run. If they injure or kill someone in the process that’s an after thought for a thief. This is obviously a different story. There is some very twisted deep seated hate that was expressed here.
This story makes me feel so horrible as it is so unfathomable to me. I can see why some people support the death penalty in cases like this. I think I might reconsider my stand on it when I consider this case. It makes my blood boil.
Regan DuCasse
February 21st, 2009
This was clearly, because the assailants knew the victim, a case of FIRST DEGREE murder.
And it usually IS in the case of hate crimes against gay men and women.
Typically, their assailants have either watched them, or engage them in a friendly manner.
The stereotype that gay people are rich, and implicit belief that it’s undeserved wealth, lends fuel to the perp’s resentment AND specific targeting of gay people.
First degree murder IS a capital crime in most, if not all states. But I did some research a while back and found that if the victim is gay or lesbian, the gay panic defense is employed regardless of how ludicrous the situation and hard evidence against the perpetrators.
And the results are lessened degrees from the initial charge, plea deals available where they normally wouldn’t be, AND there is no evidence there has EVER been an execution OR sentence to execution for the killings of gay people.
Sometimes it’s been very difficult to get local enforcers to properly collect evidence, retain perps (Brandon Teena case), or show proper concern for the victims, even in the presence of their survivors.
These all are indicators of the danger of bias up and down the chain of justice. And in arguments regarding hate crimes laws and the motive FOR them, it’s not about ‘thought’ policing, but ensuring that those in charge of the law, will execute it rightly to their purpose of getting dangerous people off the streets and penalized.
After all, look at all the people who got away with assault and murder on blacks and gays in Jim Crow states.
Unfortunately, gay folks have had to deal with virtually the same level of bias among enforcers as well as perpetrators.
Ryan was set on by TWO people. He had no way of defending himself. At least the perps have been initially charged with a capital crime. Let’s see what happens in the sentencing phase.
Eddie89
February 21st, 2009
I’m worried that the jury may choose a lesser punishment because Florida is such an anti-gay State.
Each of them may have their own anti-gay biases and this may affect their ruling against this inhuman degenerates.
Plus, add to this that the family and the LGBT community is being asked to remain silent and closeted during this trial!
Dee
February 22nd, 2009
Why the narrative decision to identify the victim by his first name, Ryan, and everyone else in the story by their last, which is the accepted journalistic standard? The inconsistency is distracting and raises questions about the report’s objectivity and professionalism.
Jim Burroway
February 22nd, 2009
Good question. The answer is simple. When it comes to murder victims of anti-gay violence like this, I make no pretense of treating the victims and criminals as though they were morally equal, nor do I pretend that the culprits deserve the same level of respect.
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