Araujo witness to be sentenced in August

Bay Area Reporter, CA, USA


Vol. 36 / No. 21 / 25 May 2006

Araujo witness to be sentenced in August

by Zak Szymanski
z.szymanski [at] ebar.com


Add a few more months to the legal proceedings surrounding the
nearly 4-year-old Gwen Araujo murder case. On Monday, May 22,
attorneys agreed to continue the sentencing of Jaron Nabors – the
prosecution's star witness in the case – until Friday, August 4 at
the Hayward Hall of Justice.

Originally scheduled for Monday before Judge Michael Gaffey, the
sentencing was delayed due to Nabors's attorneys Robert and Anne
Beles not receiving the probation report in time to review it,
according to both the prosecution and defense. The matter also was
transferred to Judge Harry Sheppard, who presided over two trials in
the case, because he was most familiar with the issues. Nabors,
dressed in a red jail jumpsuit, appeared briefly before the court
while in custody but did not speak.

"I think Judge Gaffey's thinking is that Judge Sheppard is much more
familiar with the case, so he should let him handle it. There also
is a condition upon [Nabors's] sentence that he testify truthfully,
and theoretically the best person to determine that would be
Sheppard," said Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Chris
Lamiero. "But the main reason for the delay is that the defense has
a right to review and respond to the probation report and they did
not get it in time."

It was Nabors who first offered information to the police about the
brutal murder of Araujo, 17, a transgender teenager from the East
Bay town of Newark. Araujo befriended Nabors, now 23, and his
friends Michael Magidson, Jose Merel, and Jason Cazares, all of whom
are now 26, in the summer of 2002. The group of men turned on Araujo
after discovering she was anatomically male, and in October 2002 she
was beaten and strangled to death at a gathering in Merel's home.

Early in the investigation Nabors accepted a deal whereby he pleaded
guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for 11 years in prison
and his testimony against his friends.

The first trial ended with a hung jury in June 2004 when jurors
could not unanimously agree on first-degree murder convictions for
all the defendants. A second trial found Merel and Magidson guilty
of second-degree murder in September 2005 after testimony seemed to
link both men to delivering potentially fatal wounds to the victim.
The jury was hung again when it came to Cazares, who by all witness
accounts planned on burying Araujo's body – possibly before she
died – but reportedly did not inflict injury upon her.

After two consecutive non-verdicts in the Cazares case, the Alameda
County District Attorney's office offered Cazares a plea-bargain in
December 2005 in which he pleaded no contest to voluntary
manslaughter in exchange for serving a six-year prison term minus
credit for time served. It was a deal many found unfair when
compared to Nabors, who received more prison time despite his early
cooperation. As the murder trials progressed, members of Nabors's
family reportedly reached out to Araujo's family, and Terry Nabors,
Jaron's mother, was seen sitting on the side of the courtroom that
supported the prosecution.


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