Defense in Philly Murder Case Planning to Use Variation of 'Gay Panic?'

The defense for a model who witnesses say was using drugs just prior to having killed a man may be planning to use a variation of the so-called "gay panic" defense, reported the Philadelphia Daily News on June 23.

Witnesses said that minutes before he killed 37-year-old Anthony Williams on Sept. 27. 2008, then-31-year-old Ray Armstrong was spotted sitting in his SUV, which was parked outside of Williams' house, smoking what was thought to be a marijuana cigarette enhanced with PCP or, perhaps, embalming fluid. He then began to batter the windshield of his vehicle with his bare fists. Onlookers sought to get Armstrong help, and took him to Williams. Ten minutes later, a naked, wet Armstrong dashed from Williams' home, declared himself to be God, and lay prone in the street. He directed onlookers not to go into Williams' house because, he said, Williams was dead.

Indeed, he was--he had been strangled and beaten to death. Now the defense is claiming that Armstrong had not used any drugs, but rather was suffering from a panic attack. Based on remarks by the prosecution, the defense may have been attempting to claim that Armstrong's panic was sparked by Williams making a homosexual overture.

The Philadelphia Daily News article ran down several instances in which the "gay panic" defense has been used, sometimes successfully, secure reduced charges or even acquittal in murder cases involving gay victims. Typically, the defendant's claim is that he was approached sexually by a gay or transgender man and experienced such terror that he killed the victim out of pure self-defense. Perhaps the most famous example of the "gay panic" claim was made by Aaron McKinney, one of the two killers of openly gay Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1999. The story later changed, with Shepard's murder being touted by the anti-gay right wing as a drug-fueled robbery gone wrong. The judge rejected the "gay panic" claim, and McKinney and his accomplice, Russell Henderson, received two life sentences each upon sentencing.

The tactic has been applied to some cases in which panic seems less likely than premeditation. In one high-profile example cited by the article, a confession of same-sex attraction by a gay man to a straight friend on The Jenny Jones Show in 1995 was followed, three days later, by the shooting death of gay Scott Amedure by straight Jonathan Schmitz. The three-day lag derailed the defense's attempt at claiming gay panic, and Schmitz was convicted of second-degree murder.

In another instance, a 19-year-old man, Cary Hirte, had sex with 37-year-old Glenn Kopitske in 2003. Hirte left Kopitske's home, only to return later on with a gun and a knife, both of which he employed in slaying the older man. Hirte went on to show trophies from the crime to friends and brag about the killing. The court rejected a claim of temporary insanity--which is the essential claim when gay panic is cited, the argument being that an otherwise rational person was driven past the point of reason by outrage or fear when sexually approached by someone of the same gender.

The defense is increasingly being viewed with skepticism, especially when the victim and the accused had known one another for a length of time. In a recent Florida case, a 28-year-old man who had confessed to the murder of a 60-year-old victim saw his claim rejected, in part because the two had know one another for a number of months and had lived together. Another factor was the claim of gay panic being a late development: in his original confession, the killer gave detailed descriptions of the slaying but said nothing about panic or sexual advances. Those claims came later, with the defense attempting to convince the court that the killing resulted from a sexually charged tough that triggered traumatic memories of prison rape.

Similarly, skeptics about the chances for such a defense in the Philadelphia case point to Armstrong and Williams having been friends for a number of years, making a claim of shock and surprise seem less credible, even if Williams had been gay.

But the gay panic defense still works in some cases, enabling accused killers to receive lesser charges or even to walk free. Last year, a Spanish gay couple invited a man home after meeting him at a gay club.

A March 2, 2009 Blabbeando article related how Isaac Ali Dani Per�z Trivi�o, 27, and his fiancee, Julio Anderson Luciano, 32, were killed in their apartment in Vigo, Spain, in the early hours of Jan. 13, 2006. Rial, the article said, broke down a locked door to get to Trivi�o, even as the victim was on the phone with police.

Before authorities arrived, Trivi�o was dead, along with his fiancee; moreover, Rial had freshened up in the men's shower, tied a blanket around Trivi�o's head with a cord and then tied the cord to a bed post, strewn clothing around the apartment in an evident attempt to make the scene look like a robbery, and set the place on fire, causing a five-alarm inferno. The extensive preparations to make the scene look like a robbery had taken place, before torching the place, took place during a five-hour-plus interim, between Rial killing the men, at around 4:00 a.m., and exiting their apartment with a suitcase filled with their stolen belongings, at about 9:30 a.m.

The jury accepted the gay panic defense, moving to acquit Rial of all charges. The judge intervened, however, and the defendant received a steep sentence--for arson. He remained unconvicted in the murders.

The Philadelphia Daily news article cited a case in which an Illinois man beat a murder rap last year. The killing took place in 2008, when 30-year-old Joseph Biedermann stabbed neighbor Terrance Hauser, 38, 61 times. Biedermann walked away from court free after jurors accepted his gay panic claim. Biedermann claimed that Hauser had threatened him with a sword and demanded sexual services from him.

Such claims of armed sexual assault are not uncommon in cases of so-called gay panic. In one case in which a killer walked free, his defense included a claim that he's been forced into oral sex at gunpoint. In a similar claim, the killer of New York City newsman George Weber, a 16-year-old bladed weapons enthusiast named John Katehis, said that Weber had threatened him with a knife. Katehis, who is straight but who agreed to rough gay sex with Weber for pay, stabbed Weber--who was bound when he was slain--51 times, according to the autopsy report.

Though the defense in the Armstrong case resisted the notion that their strategy played the gay panic card, remarks by the prosecution indicated that their tactics were perceived as a variation of that argument. Said Leon Goodman, the assistant district attorney, "I plan to file a motion to exclude the gay-panic defense that the defendant has proffered."

The article quoted Lambda Legal's Jon Davidson as noting dryly that if gay panic "were an adequate defense for murder, then there would sure be a lot of heterosexual men in this country who'd be murdered."