Plea Averts 1st Trial in Slaying of Gay Student

DENVER —  Facing the parents of Matthew Shepard in a Laramie, Wyo., court on Monday, Russell Henderson admitted in graphic detail his part in Shepard’s brutal murder last October and pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain that spared him a possible death sentence.

Henderson’s trial had been scheduled to begin today. But in a hastily called hearing the 21-year-old high-school dropout pleaded guilty to felony murder and kidnapping, each carrying a life sentence without possibility of parole. The plea averted Wyoming’s first capital murder trial in 20 years.

Henderson and his friend, Aaron McKinney, were charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery in the Oct. 7 killing of Shepard, a 21-year-old freshman at the University of Wyoming. Police say the two men posed as homosexuals to lure Shepard, who was gay, from a Laramie bar. They drove him to a remote area, lashed him to a fence and pistol-whipped him. On a frigid night, they left Shepard, bleeding profusely, tied to the fence, where he was discovered 18 hours later. He died Oct. 12.

McKinney’s trial for a crime that focused national attention on anti-gay violence is set for August.

Henderson, appearing solemn, listened as the victim’s mother, Judy Shepard, stood at a podium and spoke tearfully. Judy Shepard, who has evolved from grief-stricken mother to reluctant activist for hate-crimes legislation, spoke directly to Henderson.

“I hope you never experience a day or night without experiencing the terror, humiliation, hopelessness and helplessness my son felt that night,” she said. She described arriving at the hospital and finding her son so badly beaten that he was recognizable only by a distinctive bump on his ear.

In his statement, Henderson said that it wasn’t his idea to rob Shepard but that he went along with McKinney. He said that he stood by as McKinney beat the diminutive Shepard. At one point, Henderson said, he told McKinney that Shepard had had enough. He said McKinney responded by hitting Henderson over the head with the .357 Magnum pistol he had used to beat Shepard.

‘I’m Very Sorry . . . Ready to Pay My Debt’

As the hearing began, the boyish-looking Henderson rose and apologized to Shepard’s parents, seated nearby in the oak-paneled courtroom.

“Mr. and Mrs. Shepard, there is not a moment that goes by that I don’t see what happened that night,” he said. “I’m very sorry for what I did and I’m ready to pay my debt for what I did.”

Judge Jeffery A. Donnell, imposing consecutive life sentences, brushed aside Henderson’s statement of contrition for a crime the jurist called vile and senseless.

“This court does not believe you feel any remorse,” Donnell said. “The pain you have caused here, Mr. Henderson, will never go away. Never.”

Felony murder, under Wyoming law, is defined as murder during the commission of another felony, and lacking premeditation.

A onetime honor-roll student, Henderson was reared in Laramie by his grandmother. Friends remembered him as a quiet, studious child who tended to defer to others. As a teenager, he got into some minor scrapes with the law. After his arrest in the Shepard case, his mother died, her frozen body discovered after she left a local tavern.

Outside the stately Albany County courthouse on a bright spring day, rival small groups stood behind police barricades. A local group called Angels of Peace wore wings fashioned of white sheets and attempted to block from view a contingent of anti-gay protesters.

Laramie had girded itself for a long and heart-wrenching trial and the attention it was sure to bring. Monday’s events mean that life might soon return to normal in this usually quiet college town.

“There’s probably some relief,” said Mayor Dave Williams. “We are not going to have reporters running ‘round. We are not a community without problems, like any community. What it’s done, more than anything else, is to have us take a look at ourselves. This crime is going to be etched in our minds for a long time.”

Although the terms of the agreement were not released, it is believed that in return for dropping the death penalty Henderson will be called to testify against McKinney, his nearly inseparable companion. The two worked for the same roofing company, each earning about $1,000 a month, and often spent their days together.

Ken Brown, chief deputy county attorney, said he would not comment on the terms of the agreement. “We do not wish to compromise an investigation or a pending trial,” he said.

Legal analysts had predicted a defense strategy in which each of the alleged assailants would challenge the other’s story, although McKinney was not scheduled to testify in the Henderson trial.

“Hate crimes tend to be committed by more than one attacker--the finger pointing begins,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center on Hate and Extremism at Stockton College in Pomona, N.J. “It presents a difficult time for the prosecutor. It’s very hard to extricate who did what and what each role was. You say, ‘My client was no angel, he did a lot of bad things, but there is no evidence that he killed this poor kid.’ ”

Wyatt Skaggs, Henderson’s court-appointed lawyer, foreshadowed his trial tactics when he told prospective jurors two weeks ago that although Henderson was present when Shepard was beaten and robbed, his client did not participate or profit. Henderson, Skaggs said, was not a murderer but a witness to murder. The defense attorney also insisted that the killing was not a hate crime.

The plea agreement preempted what many gay-rights activists hoped would become a national forum for discussion of hate-crimes legislation and anti-gay discrimination legal measures.

Case Led to Efforts to Raise Penalties

Since Shepard’s death, more than a dozen states have begun considering legislation to raise penalties for anti-gay crimes. But every bill voted on so far has been defeated, including one in Wyoming. Opponents generally argue that such measures are superfluous.

David M. Smith, of the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, cited the pending trials of McKinney and his girlfriend, Kristen Price--who is charged with being an accessory to murder--as a means to focus on anti-gay violence.

“This was never about a public forum about hate violence; this was about justice being served for Matthew,” he said. “There are two forums coming up where these issues could be explored.”

William Dobbs, with the New York activist group Queer Watch, called Monday’s guilty plea “bittersweet.” He has been working to solidify gay opposition to the death penalty.

“I’m glad there is some resolution and there won’t be an execution,” he said, expressing the hope that there would be more attention given to the day-to-day discrimination homosexuals face. “But the underlying issues of gay life in Wyoming and the United States have not been discussed. That remains.”