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Loading ...Plea Bargain In Arizona Gay Man’s Death
07.23.2008 3:42pm EDT
(Yuma, Arizona) The mother of Amancio Corrales broke down in tears as the man accused of stabbing him in 2005 pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in a deal with prosecutors.
“He didn’t kill a person but a whole family. I don’t agree [with this plea],” Maribel Corrales told the court through an interpreter. “It is not fair.”Solorio Valenzuela originally was charged with second-degree murder, but a grand jury later indicted him on a charges of manslaughter and abandoning a body.
If the plea deal is accepted by Judge Andrew Gould, Valenzuela would be sentenced to less than nine years in prison. He would be required to serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for release.
Valenzuela also could be ordered to pay restitution of $150,000.
The body of Amancio Corrales, 23, was found in the Colorado River on May 6, 2005. He had been stabbed numerous times.
Corrales was a well known drag performer in Yuma and in Mexico, performing under the name Delilah. He was was born in Sinaloa, Mexico, and worked as a cosmetologist in Yuma.
Corrales was seen the night of his slaying at several bars in Yuma in drag.
In agreeing to the plea deal prosecutor Levi Gunderson told the court that Valenzuela had not planned to murder Corrales, but acted in the “heat of passion” out of “rage and humiliation” when he discovered Corrales was a male.
If Judge Gould accepts the plea bargain, Valenzuela will be sentenced on Aug. 21.
The killing sent shockwaves through Yuma’s relatively small and close knit gay community and became a rallying cause for gay-rights advocates throughout Arizona.
Many believed that Corrales was the victim of a hate crime, although investigators refused to label it as such.
Same old story. After living in AZ for nearly 40 Years, I have never seen one person get away with murder the way this one has. Does this mean after he gets out in a few years that we (society) gets to hunt him down and do what the legal system has failed to? After all, everyone knows we would get the death penalty, right? WAKE UP Yuma County! Demand equal justice and reject any “gay panic defense”. Otherwise, we will all be exposed to this killer because the system has failed to protect us.
Our anger and demand for vengeance would only make us the same kind of people as Solorio Valenzuela and would not bring back Amancio Corrales.
This is our chance to show more humanity than is shown to us.
I do like the new beta look with one exception.
The type face on the articles is so small (8 pt?) as to be unreadable. The type in your sidebars is fine, but I have to believe that the type in the articles’ body is just an error.
If not, please have pity on your readers over the age of 19 and use larger, more readable type. After all, what good is a news magazine if you can’t read the news?
Not only should the murderer be sentenced to life in prison, but the people who encourage hatred against gay people, due to their ignorance, machoism, and desire for power should also be held responsible. And from what I’ve read this was a hate crime pure and simple. And please don’t talk about vengeance being wrong – I agree with you. This is about taking a dangerous animal out of circulation for the rest of his life. Real Humanity is protecting the potential next victim, and ending once and for all the homophobia – based on machoism, and perpetrated by churches who do exactly the opposite of what Jesus life was really about for mankind.
BTW, I’ve met people who were transgendered, and have a number of gay friends. And I don’t see them as a threat at all. They are all good people, it is as simple as that, and violence and expressing hatred against them is a moral, and should be a legal crime as well.
As an Arizona resident I can only hang my head in shame at what travesty of justice has been allowed to happen by a prosecutor who’s basically lazy and a group of grand Jurors who seemingly don’t much care that a viscous murder was committed, the victim’s body dumped in a river in an attempt to get away with it, and then they’re going to charge the perpetrator with MANSLAUGHTER! Their reasoning is “that the killer acted in ‘the heat of passion’ when he discovered the victim was male’. Oh my goodness, picking up a stranger in a bar, going home with them for purposes of consensual sex between adults and finding out the person is not the gender you expected them to be is now grounds for MURDER in ARIZONA? What about the alternatives? What about “oh gee, I thought you were female – and I don’t think we’d better continue” or a simple “this isn’t going to work for me, good night!” But no. Not in YUMA. In YUMA ARIZONA you are apparently justified in pulling out a knife, stabbing the victim multiple times, and then dumping the body in a river to hide the evidence of your murderous rage. CORRALES (the murderer) made a mistaken assumption about the gender of the other party. He says. Maybe when he was confronted with evidence of his own homosexual leanings was when he ‘went off the deep end’ and decided better to kill someone than to admit that he was as queer as the other party! Who knows what acts he committed with his victims penis BEFORE he decided to silence the man forever? And in the pathetic ignorance of a semi-latin “macho” culture in YUMA, the bastard is being charged with MANSLAUGHTER??? What bullshit! In about six or seven years this MURDERER will be back out on the streets and free to do it again. This time who knows what will trigger his rage. Or maybe while he’s in prison he’ll come to grips with the fact that he is, indeed, gay himself – although loathe to admit it, and willing to murder to conceal it, apparently.
When someone is stabbed multiple times, and their body is thrown in a river in an attempt to conceal the crime – the crime is one of MURDER. Not manslaughter. Not some lesser charge. But MURDER pure and simple. Maybe murder committed in a homosexual rage and maybe a psychotic event. But a MURDER none-the-less. YUMA county, the Grand Jurors, and the Prosecutors have demeaned themselves, brought shame to their county and their state, and have willingly participated in a gross miscarriage of justice. One can only hope that JUDGE GOULD looks at this gross abortion of justice and stops it. The man is a murderer. Maybe 2nd degree. But a murderer none-the-less and should be not allowed to plea bargain down to a slap on the wrist for such a horrible and vicious killing of another innocent human being!!!
CORRECTION TO MY PREVIOUS COMMENT: THE VICTIM was named AMANIC CORRALES. HIS KILLER is named Solorio VALENZUELA. I apparently reversed the two names in my haste and furry at the pathetic excuse for justice that is taking place in YUMA County. I apologize deeply to the CORRALES family and my heart goes out to them for their horrible loss of their son, brother, friend, etc.
It is only by complaining loudly about this that we have any hope of preventing it. The address for Judge Gould (the presiding judge who must okay this plea bargain agreement) is:
The Hon. Andrew W. Gould, Presiding Judge
YUMA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION FOUR
250 West 2nd Street, Suite E
Yuma, AZ 85364
Phone: (928) 817-4041
Fax: (928) 817-1011
I IMPLORE ANY CONCERNED CITIZENS (gay or straight) and whether in Arizona or outside it, to call, or better yet to fax letters to Judge Gould regarding this plea bargain agreement before it is allowed to stand. IT IS NOT OPEN SEASON ON GAYS IN THE STATE OF ARIZONA and allowing this plea bargain to stand is a clear indication that MURDER of GAYS is OKAY in YUMA COUNTY! IS THAT REALLY THE MESSAGE THEY WANT TO CONVEY?
SOS.
I thought the “gay panic” defense didn’t work anymore.
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