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Loading ...Colo. Man Charged In Transwoman Slaying
07.31.2008 7:05am EDT
(Greeley, Colo.) A Colorado man is accused of fatally battering a sex partner with a fire extinguisher after discovering that his companion was a transgender woman.
Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said Wednesday that he is considering filing first-degree murder charges and may prosecute the death as a hate crime.
Andrade was arrested in the Denver suburb of Thornton, where he lives. Police responding to a noise complaint found him in Zapata’s 2003 PT Cruiser, which had been missing.
Andrade told investigators that he met Zapata through MocoSpace, a social network designed primarily for cell phone users, according to an arrest affidavit released by Greeley police. The two met July 15 and spent the day together.
Andrade told investigators that Zapata performed oral sex on him but wouldn’t let him touch her, according to the affidavit.
He said he also spent the night at Zapata’s apartment, but in separate beds. The next day, Zapata left Andrade alone in her apartment, and Andrade noticed several photographs that led him to question Zapata’s gender.
Andrade confronted Zapata when she got back. He grabbed Zapata’s crotch area, felt male genitalia and became angry, the affidavit says. He told investigators that he took a fire extinguisher off a shelf, struck Zapata twice in the head and thought he “killed it.”
“It’s disgusting,” Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner said of Andrade’s reference to Zapata. “It’s a horrible thing to say.”
Andrade told investigators he covered Zapata with a blanket and started gathering evidence he thought might link him to the crime when he heard gurgling sounds and noticed Zapata was sitting up. That’s when he picked up the fire extinguisher and hit her again, police said. He left the scene in her car.
Zapata’s sister, Monica Murguia, couldn’t be reached for comment on Andrade’s arrest. She told Denver’s KDVR-TV that Andrade deserved to remain behind bars forever.
“He took a part of our heart, he did, when he killed her,” she said after reading the arrest affidavit.
A guard at the jail said information about whether Andrade had an attorney was not available. There was no telephone listing for him in Thornton.
this is sickening!
I cant even imagine doing something so horrible!!
Its so sad that people are so full of hate and fear. It seems that he thought of her as less of a person and needed to be eradicated.
This must stop. Innocent lives being taken away from them because who they are doesnt conform to the ‘accepted social norm’
Joshua,
Yes, it’s sick, but the real question is, what are you going to do about it?
I have just started dating after my transition, and Stories like this are the reason I’m squeaky clean about who I am. Its better to be safe than dead though I loose dates because of it.
Anything i can. if anyone has any resources it would be greatly appreciated.
He murdered her because his manhood was affronted. Doesn’t this say something about the need to end machoism in our society, which is just a part of what we see in Arab societies, where the man rules, and where women are virtually slaves, even though they may accept their life, not knowing anything better.
For this guy, it is to bad the constitution forbids unusual punishment. For him, a sex change would be appropriate.
He killed her because of homophobia. He felt she was making him a gay in some sense. If it wasn’t for those who poison our society with machoism and homophobia, he would probably have said “oops, sorry, not what I want, and left. Do we all know who is really responsible for this crime, for which this man was really just a proxy murderer. I do.