Allen Ray Andrade, the man who murdered Angie Zapata (left), was just minutes ago convicted on the two main charges of first degree murder and bias-motivated crime (hate crime). He was also convicted of the significantly lesser charges of vehicle theft and identity theft.
As far as I’m aware as of writing, those are the highest convictions on all charges against him. And for his heinous crime, at 4:00PM MDT, Andrade will be sentenced to mandatory life without parole.
It took the jury only about 2 hours to deliberate. Only about 2 hours.
The trans panic defense failed, seemingly by a landslide. Like my co-blogger Jack and others, I am not convinced that this is actually justice for Angie — when a woman is dead and nothing can bring her back, I don’t really think there is such a thing as “justice” anymore. But it is the best we could have hoped for in this particular case. And I am in relieved shock.
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Thanks for sharing.
Thankyou for the news. And notwithstanding what you say about justice not really being an option, that the jury seemed so adamant is heartening.
Just when things seem totally dark and awful, there are things like this that show me that there’s still a little glimmer of hope left in the world, and there’s still some good in people.
I was so relieved when I saw this on facebook. We can’t bring Angie, or any another trans person who has died, back, but we can work to make this world the place it should be. A place where this never would have happened to Angie. Where she could who she was, and live, and be happy.
Whew. I mean, really.
Thanks for sharing this.
I’ve been sat here for two hours trying to form words, to… form thoughts. I’ve been listening to news reports, reading things on it, and unashamedly crying. I’ve considered waking my partner to tell him, although the news doesn’t affect him too much- he’s not trans.
I am. I’m not American. But I didn’t realise, until I read the verdict, how much this affects me.
This is- it’s just a huge step, towards ending trans hate crimes and discrimination.
Still. I’m sort of numb. I don’t know what to do or say or think.
Jason, I’m right there with you. I was so sure that the jury was going to believe the trans panic defense, I had no real hope that justice would be served. But seeing this verdict, I have just been overcome. I saw on the Denver Post website when the case went to the jury and against my better judgment read the comments. They were mostly not terrible. I am trans, too, and it is overwhelming.
…It’s interesting that the best thing you can say about them is “mostly not terrible”, but since you weren’t even sure about reading them, I’m not too surprised.
It’s 3AM here and I can’t sleep- I just can’t get my mind off it, although I’m a lot calmer now. I think tomorrow happiness will set in, but right now, I’m still sort of numb. I think it’s relief, but… Yeah. You’re right, it’s overwhelming.
I’ve read a lot of interesting things about his motives, as well, beyond overall transphobia. I don’t know how much of it’s true, though.
what great news…
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