Key Witness Too Upset to Testify at Araujo Trial

Key witness too upset to testify in Araujo trial

MICHELLE LOCKE

Associated Press


HAYWARD, Calif. - The trial of three men accused of killing transgender teenager Eddie "Gwen" Araujo was thrown off course Monday when a key witness tearfully declared she was not up to testifying.

Nicole Brown, who began testifying Thursday, had been expected to talk about the chaotic scene that ensued the night she followed the teenager into a bathroom and confirmed the group's growing suspicions that the beautiful girl they knew as "Lida" was biologically male.

But with a mumbled, "I can't do it today," Brown declined to answer questions.

Judge Harry Sheppard called a recess to give Brown time to compose herself but later excused her until Tuesday. Sheppard told jurors Brown had "experienced some recent distress that's totally unrelated to this case in all respects."

Outside court, attorneys would say only that Brown needed time to take care of a personal problem.

The trial continued with brief testimony from a police detective who helped find the body, and then recessed for the day.

On trial are Michael Magidson, 23, and Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, both 24. A fourth man, Jaron Nabors, initially was charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and has been promised an 11-year sentence in exchange for testifying against his friends.

At the time of Araujo's death in fall 2002, Brown was the girlfriend of Merel's older brother. She was at the Merel house on Oct. 3 for what Nabors and others have described as a confrontation with Araujo that began with shouts of "Are you a man or a woman?"

At a preliminary hearing last year, Brown testified she was deputized to find out, which she said she did by pushing Araujo's legs apart and grabbing at her genitals.

"I felt something!" she yelled, according to her earlier testimony, setting off pandemonium in the house in Newark, a San Francisco suburb

According to prosecutors, Araujo was set upon by the people she thought were her friends, choked, punched, kicked, tied up and strangled. Her body was thrown in the back of a pickup and driven to a remote location in the Sierra, about 150 miles east.

Nabors took police to the body, buried in a shallow grave, in mid-October, a discovery that drew national headlines and focused attention on the issue of violence against people who believe their identity is in conflict with their biology.

In opening statements last week, Magidson's attorney, Michael Thorman, said the killing was manslaughter not murder. According to Nabors, both Magidson and Merel had sexual encounters with Araujo. Thorman said the shock of finding out he had unwittingly had sex with a man upset Magidson "beyond reason."

Cazares' attorney, Tony Serra, took a different approach, saying his client tried to protect Araujo and never struck her. Nabors testified at the preliminary hearing that Cazares tacitly admitted hitting Araujo on the head with a shovel after she was strangled to make sure she was dead. Serra said that is not true and he plans to try to show jurors Nabors is not credible.

Serra also said he will present circumstantial evidence that Nabors was having a relationship with Lida that he has not owned up to.

During cross-examination of the officer who testified Monday, Serra appeared to start working on that, asking the officer about a piece of paper found in Araujo's purse that had "Jaron" written on it along with a phone number.

On redirect questioning from prosecutor Chris Lamiero, the officer said a number of names and numbers were found in Araujo's purse.