Trial in Murder of Gay Man To Open

3/20/99

c The Associated Press

By ROBERT W. BLACK

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) -- Matthew Shepard's feet were all that could be seen of him amid the sagebrush.

The 5-foot-2, 105-pound University of Wyoming freshman was found barely alive on Oct. 7, lying on his back, his hands bound beneath him, his ankles tied with clothesline to a rustic log fence on a rocky plateau.

His head was distorted by 18 blows from fists and the butt of a handgun, his breathing labored from the blood that covered his face, clogged his nose and formed two large pools on the ground where he had lain for 18 hours.

He died five days later in a hospital in Fort Collins, Colo.

At the fence, someone has arranged rocks into the shape of a cross amid patches of snow and reddish prairie mud. One small stone is inscribed "Forgive.''

On Wednesday, the state opens its case against Russell Arthur Henderson, the first of two high school dropouts charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. He could be sentenced to die by injection if convicted.

The trial of the second man, Aaron James McKinney, is scheduled in August.

Henderson's girlfriend, Chasity Vera Pasley, has pleaded guilty to helping cover up the crime and is awaiting sentencing. McKinney's girlfriend, Kristen LeAnn Price, will go on trial in May on accessory charges.

Police believe Henderson and McKinney, low on cash, met Shepard in a downtown Laramie bar, convinced him they were gay, offered him a ride and then beat him to steal $20 for cigarettes and gas.

The savagery of the crime drew public attention. Candlelight vigils were held across the nation; one in New York that drew 5,000 people turned violent, resulting in 130 arrests.

Gay rights activists urged passage of bias crime legislation in Wyoming and other states that have no such laws. But a bill that would have toughened penalties for hate crimes in Wyoming failed on a 30-30 vote in the state House in January.

Now Henderson's trial is rekindling discussion among Laramie residents. "People did step back and take a look at the community overall and take a look at themselves ... to step back and decide who we really are,'' said Dan Furphy, bank president, city council member and Laramie native.

"In some ways it has made us a stronger community. We are not a bad community,'' he said.

University President Philip Dubois is still rankled at reports that attempted to pin the killing on some social illness within the community.

"There was an attempt to identify a root cause for this crime in the economic or cultural division of the city or the state and I personally don't believe that's what accounts for this,'' Dubois said. "That was just simplistic nonsense.''

Shepard grew up in Casper but had traveled the world. Ironically, he felt he would be safer in Laramie, site of the state's only four-year college.

His mother, Judy, told the Advocate, a gay and lesbian magazine, that she felt he would also be lonelier "because I felt the gay scene in Laramie would be much smaller than what he was used to.''

And now it's smaller. Since Shepard's death, two of his close friends have moved away, said John Little, president of United Gays and Lesbians of Wyoming.

"I think a lot of folks are scared because this has happened and there's nothing to stop it from happening again,'' he said.

Laramie is steeped in the state's early history when cattle barons ruled the grasslands. The University of Wyoming's mascot is a cowboy.

The presence of gays is troublesome to some residents.

"It's not an everyday thing that you see in this town, two males holding hands while walking down the street,'' said student Renee Kosik-Quagliano, 23, who moved from Chicago a year ago to earn a pharmacy degree.

But pride in its Western roots and the rough-and-tumble macho cowboy image is not the same as being redneck, say many Laramie residents. Many say Laramie is Wyoming's most open-minded city because of the presence of university.

"We have a very diverse group of people which you don't find in most of the other towns,'' said Mel Zenoni, an appliance store owner who has lived in Laramie for 29 years.

AP-NY-03-20-99 1412EST