Brandon McInerney & Larry King

Lawyers representing teen murder suspect Brandon McInerney want a judge to step down from presiding over the boy’s trial because they feel the judge can’t be fair to him or his defense lawyers.
The motion to recuse Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell comes after the judge refused to allow McInerney’s lawyers more time to prepare for the trial. The judge had told lawyers he would hear pretrial motions Monday, and begin the jury selection process today.
McInerney is accused of killing a 15-year-old classmate in February of 2008.
The motion to get Campbell disqualified immediately stops the case from going to trial until the recusal issue is resolved.
Campbell has five days to respond to the defense’s allegations. Another judge will be appointed to hear the legal arguments.
In court, prosecutor Maeve Fox criticized the filing of the recusal motion, describing it as a legal “ploy.” Fox said this was the defense attorneys’ obvious “end run” to Campbell’s ruling to delay the trial.
“It’s really a travesty upon the court system and the rule of law. … This is ridiculous and disgraceful,” she told the judge.
Last week, prosecutors told Campbell that they were ready to present testimony and evidence. Defense attorneys told the judge Wednesday they needed more time to investigate the case and interview witnesses. Without a delay in the start of the trial, they said they would not put on a defense for McInerney or respond to any of Fox’s pretrial motions.
In an interview, McInerney’s lawyer, Scott Wippert, said the motion to disqualify Campbell was made as a result of some of his rulings and comments he made last week. He declined to elaborate.
“It is clear in our minds that Brandon will not be able to get a fair trial in this courtroom,” Wippert said. “It is perfectly within our legal obligation, and ethical obligation to do so on Brandon’s behalf.”
McInerney’s case was recently sent to Campbell’s court. He was appointed the presiding judge for McInerney’s trial and last week was the first time Campbell heard legal and other matters pertaining to the case. Up until that time, McInerney’s case has gone from one judge for a preliminary hearing, then to others as other legal matters arose.
McInerney is accused of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting of 15-year-old Larry King at E.O. Green School in Oxnard in February 2008.
He is facing a murder charge, along with the special allegation of lying in wait and other charges in connection with the fatal shooting of King. The shooting is being charged as a hate crime; King had told people he was gay.
The shooting occurred in front of 25 to 30 students, prosecutors said. McInerney had just turned 14 when he allegedly pulled the trigger.
McInerney appeared in court, for the first time, wearing a white shirt, tie and black pants. He normally appears at court proceedings in blue juvenile detention garb.
from The Ventura County Star

Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras

INDIA – Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, the professor of Marathi who was suspended by Aligarh Muslim University after he was filmed by spy camera having consensual sex with a man in his bedroom, was found dead on Wednesday evening. Police declined to comment immediately on the nature of the death, but did not rule out suicide.
Siras had returned to work at the university on Monday after the Allahabad High Court lifted the suspension in a temporary order last week. The Indian Express had spoken to him over the phone at around 9.15 on Monday evening. He had said that he wanted to spend the rest of his life working for the gay community.
“I want to go to America, I want to teach them Marathi. Not the literature, the language. America is the only place where I will be free to be gay,” Siras had told this correspondent.
On Wednesday evening, Siras was found dead in the bedroom of his rented home in Aligarh’s Durga Wadi neighbourhood. The ground floor house had at least three doors, all of which were locked on the inside.
Siras was found lying on his side on the bed, wearing a blue vest and dark grey shorts, with a Tata Sky remote next to him. The room — packed choc-a-block with an almirah, a chest of drawers, a low table, a chair, a cooler, a bookrack and a TV — was in a mess. The floor was strewn with all kinds of small and large articles, among them a copy of Time magazine.
Police said they had not yet found a suicide note of any kind. A forensic team was at the site till late in the night. PTI quoted SSP (City) Man Singh Chauhan as saying Siras could have either killed himself or died after a heart attack. AMU PRO Rahat Abrar told the agency that it suspected Siras committed suicide.
from Indian Express

Chris Kanyon

NEW YORK – Former WCW and WWE tag team champion Chris Kanyon has died.
The popular 40-year-old wrestler, real name Christopher Klucsaritis, is believed to have committed suicide.
His body was found Saturday at his apartment in New York.
Kanyon had overdosed on medication, with early reports indicating he had taken his own life after leaving a pill bottle and several notes close by.
The gay star suffered from bipolar disorder and had previously spoken about killing himself.
Jason Powell, of prowrestling.net, said: “Kanyon has battled severe depression issues over the years.
“He told one friend as recently as Monday that he was having problems and was contemplating suicide.
“The friend is said to have contacted one of Kanyon’s family members to express his concern — despite the fact that he and several of Kanyon’s friends have heard similar statements over the years.
“One friend said this morning that he’s expected this type of news for years, yet it was still surprising and clearly painful for this person.”
Kanyon was best known for his time in WCW in the late 90s, moving to WWE in the Invasion angle after Ted Turner’s company folded.
He admitted he was gay after leaving WWE in 2004 with the idea of using his homosexuality in a wrestling angle, although neither Vince McMahon’s company nor rivals TNA would hire him in that role.
The star began his WCW career as a jobber, being given a construction worker gimmick.
He was then placed under a mask and renamed Mortis, portraying a character similar to Reptile and Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat series of computer games.
Kanyon then had a spell in the Flock alongside Raven before becoming affiliated on screen with Diamond Dallas Page and Bam Bam Bigelow in a stable called The Jersey Triad.
During his stint he used the nicknames Postively Kanyon and Chris ‘Champagne’ Kanyon, but was little more than a sporadically used midcarder. He also worked on the WCW-produced movie “Ready to Rumble” as stunt co-ordinator.
When WCW was purchased by McMahon, Kanyon’s contract was assumed by WWE and he became part of the Alliance Invasion team, enjoying a brief stint as United States champion and with the tag belts alongside Page.
In late 2001, he tore a cruciate ligament in his left knee and his career took a downturn.
from Fox News

Keith Kemmel

NORMAN, OKLAHOMA – Norman police found a man dead in a Norman apartment Wednesday, two days after he sent a formal complaint to the Tulsa Police Department alleging that officers beat him outside a Tulsa gay club early Saturday.
Keith Kimmel, 28, made headlines statewide in February after he filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Tax Commission for not granting his application for a personalized license plate that said “IM GAY.”
The Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet determined Kimmel’s cause or manner of death, a spokeswoman reported. Police said his death remains under investigation.
Norman police officers responded to a Norman apartment Wednesday morning after a resident found Kimmel dead. He apparently had stayed the night at the residence, according to Norman police.
Tulsa Police Capt. Jonathan Brooks said the Tulsa Police Department had received a formal complaint from Kimmel related to an incident in Tulsa early Saturday and have begun an Internal Affairs investigation.
Brooks said both the formal complaint and a phone complaint made by Kimmel are part of the investigation and cannot be released at this time.
However, Kimmel had placed a link to the complaint on his blog. In it, he accused several unnamed Tulsa officers of misconduct, brutality, excessive force and lack of professionalism after he apparently was thrown out of the End Up Club at 5336 E. Admiral Place.
The club’s owner, Blake Alterman, said he was not at the bar Friday night but had learned from his staff that Kimmel was involved in an altercation inside the bar and refused to leave.
As part of the club’s policy, an employee called the police, Alterman said.
Alterman was not aware of anyone who might have witnessed Kimmel’s interaction with police officers after he was taken out of the club, he said.
Alterman said he understood that “the door was closed, and it was just him and the police.”
In his formal complaint, Kimmel alleges that officers tried to push him into a patrol car but that because of his large size, he wouldn’t fit. “They hit my head on the door frame several times” and bent his neck “at odd angles,” he wrote.
Officers then dragged him on his stomach to a van and then, as they tried to get him into that vehicle, they punched him several times in his groin area, Kimmel alleged.
Kimmel was later taken from the van and put into an ambulance, he wrote.
He further alleges that officers made crude remarks about his weight and sexual orientation.
He included photographs of his injuries with his formal complaint.
Brooks said no police incident report was filed regarding any crime at the End Up Club this weekend and that no arrests were made there. However, Brooks said officers did respond to the club at 12:08 a.m. Saturday after a 911 caller reported a disturbance there.
The customer causing the disturbance was reported to be a white male, Brooks said.
Between 12:08 a.m. and about 12:30 a.m., eight officers responded to the call, he said.
After arriving at the scene, police requested a transport van and then called EMSA to the scene, Brooks said.
EMSA spokesman Chris Stevens said an ambulance was called by Tulsa police to the End Up Club about 1 a.m. and transported a person to St. John Medical Center.
In his complaint, Kimmel wrote that he woke up at St. John on Saturday and spoke to a security officer, who told Kimmel that there was no hold on him and that he was free to leave.
The Tulsa Police Department’s internal investigation is waiting for the medical examiner’s report on Kimmel’s death, Brooks said. Since a death is involved, the investigation will be expedited, he said.
Toby Jenkins, president of Oklahomans for Equality in Tulsa, said he had known Kimmel.
“Keith Kimmel impacted so many of our lives and addressed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in his own unique style,” Jenkins said. “We pray for his family and friends, that they will find comfort.”
from Tulsa World

Marie Osmond

marie osmonds poor gay son killed himself

because he had been told how wrong and how sick he was every day of his life by his church and the people in it. Calling that “depression” is a lie!
Yet the Osmonds still talk lovingly about their church, saying nothing about its extremely anti-gay Crusade. Marie also has a gay daughter! Hey, I want her and all the gay kids in the world to know that they are just fine being gay and that they deserve love and respect instead of insults and rebuke! I have gay people in my family and my circle of friends and I am kicking bigot ass and taking names!
That is how its done in my religion—(I have my own religion that I made up for myself and it is a great religion that actually works and respects facts and not fantasy!)
Gerald Lund one of the ex church apostles has three gay kids himself.
Yet, even though the people they say they love the most in all of their public displays and speeches (THEIR KIDS AND FAMILY!!) are gay,– their own children,for crying out loud- these people cannot find the christian decency and compassion within themselves to stop their hypocritical gay bashing!!
How sickening. I know so many mormon kids who were gay and committed suicide, and I just cannot and will not stay quiet in order to not offend bigots anymore. It is all so terribly depressing.
Marie please don’t talk about how your faith in your church has helped you get through this one! Please get some integrity and tell that church of yours that you will leave it and stop giving it ten percent of your money if they don’t stop trying to destroy your kids’ and all gay people’s civil rights and dreams and hopes!!
G-d is trying to use you for something good and this is your opportunity! Your church is wrong and on the wrong wrong wrong side of things! Get as vocal about that as you are about your diet. G-d bless you too, Marie.
Take a hard look at the facts now as you use this very sad time for introspection, healing growth and prayer, and become a strong symbol for loving mothers who make no apologies for hatred against their own kids!
Roseanne Barr
from Roseanne World

Ray Gosling

UNITED KINGDOM – A Vereran BBC presenter will be interviewed by detectives after he told TV viewers he carried out a mercy killing on a former male lover who was suffering from Aids.
During a pre-recorded show which was aired on Monday night, award-winning documentary maker Ray Gosling, 70, revealed he smothered the unnamed man as he lay in hospital “in terrible, terrible pain”.
A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire Police yesterday ­confirmed the force was not aware of the issue until the broadcaster made his revelation on BBC East Midlands’ Inside Out programme.
She said: “We are now liaising with the BBC and will investigate the matter.”
The BBC said it would “co-operate fully” with the police investigation.
Mr Gosling, who refused to reveal the man’s identity, said he was not “making a cause” of assisted dying but said there was a case for changing the law.
Yesterday he said: “Sometimes doctors do it on their own. Sometimes people do it on their own.
“And if it happens to a lover or friend of yours, a husband, a wife – and I hope it doesn’t – but when it does sometimes you have to do brave things and you have to say – to use ­Nottingham language – bugger the law.”
During the 30-minute programme, Mr Gosling said: “Maybe this is the time to share a secret that I have kept for quite a long time.
“I killed someone once… He was a young chap, he’d been my lover and he got Aids.”
Strolling through a graveyard, he broke down as he recalled: “In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, ‘There’s nothing we can do’, and he was in terrible, terrible pain. I said to the doctor ‘Leave me just for a bit’ and he went away.
from The Daily Express
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Brendan Burke With Father Brian Burke

TORONTO, CANADA – A moment of silence will be held for Brendan Burke, the son of Toronto general manager Brian Burke who died in car accident, before the Maple Leafs play Ottawa on Saturday night.
The 21-year-old Burke died after his car slid sideways into the path of another car on a snowy Indiana road on Friday. Burke’s friend, 18-year-old Mark Reedy, also died in the accident.
Maple Leafs players found out about the accident after a loss in New Jersey on Friday night.
Toronto’s Francois Beauchemin played for Burke when he was general manager for the Anaheim Ducks and recalled celebrating their 2007 Stanley Cup win at a gathering with Brendan.
“You never think, ‘that’s going to happen to me,’” Beauchemin said after Saturday’s pregame skate. “But when it happens to somebody really close, like Brian, you kind of do think about it. It can happen any time, and it’s really tough.”
Brian Burke is also the general manager of the U.S. Olympic team that will begin play in Vancouver on Feb. 16.
“It’s the worst news you could ever receive,” Leafs forward Christian Hanson said. “I don’t think there’s anything that can be worse than losing a family member.”
The driver of the truck was reportedly uninjured.
Brendan Burke attended Miami of Ohio and was a manager for the school’s top-ranked hockey team. He made news last year after ESPN.com ran a story about his decision to tell his father he was gay.
“I had a million good reasons to love and admire Brendan,” Brian Burke said in the story. “This news didn’t alter any of them.”
Father and son discussed the news during a joint appearance on Canadian television TSN last year. Brendan Burke said while he was initially nervous about coming out to his father, he knew he would find support.
“I was surprised, but Brendan’s a wonderful kid,” Brian Burke said in the interview. “He’s been a joy since the day he came home from the hospital, and I support him. I’m very proud of him.”
Burke said he told his son he loved him.
“He’s supported me with everything I’ve done in the past,” Brendan Burke said during the interview. “I knew he would support me on this, too, and it really meant a lot. My whole family has been there for me, and been behind me 100 percent.”
Both men said the positive feedback overwhelmed any of the negative they might have received.
“Pioneers are often misunderstood,” Brian Burke told TSN. “You don’t wish this on your son, you wish that someone else carries that burden first, and then he can grab it and help. But this is what he wanted to do, and we support him.”
Leafs goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere also played for Burke in Anaheim and knew his son.
“It’s really sad,” Giguere said. “I don’t think we can even comprehend what Burkie is going through at this point. I think, right now, it’s best to just let him grieve and make sure that we do our job here at the rink to make sure he doesn’t have to worry about that.”
from The Associated Press

PORTLAND, MAINE - A gun collector who introduced several weapons into sexual play with two other men contends the weapons were intended to fulfill a sexual fantasy. Instead, a lethal combination of drugs, extreme sex and Russian roulette has put him on trial for manslaughter.
Both the defense and prosecutors say there was no intention to kill. But prosecutors say defendant Bruce Lavallee-Davidson, a farmer from Skowhegan, was responsible for ensuring his gun wasn’t loaded when it was being handled.
The trial in Portland, the state’s largest city, has shed light on a dungeon in a home in neighboring South Portland filled with sexual toys that three men used as a drug-fueled escape from reality. But Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese says the focus should be on the handling of the gun – not the sexual acts in the victim’s basement.
“You never point a loaded gun at someone’s head,” Marchese said after resting her case Tuesday, emphasizing it’s the responsibility of the person holding the revolver to ensure the chamber is empty. “You don’t point a gun and pull the trigger unless you’re 100 percent sure.”
The bespectacled Lavallee-Davidson, with closely cropped gray hair and a goatee and dressed in a sport coat and khakis, gave the appearance of a college professor as he sat quietly in court, where closing arguments were anticipated Wednesday. Before becoming an organic farmer, he was a technology administrator for Maine Central Institute, a prep school.
The Dartmouth College graduate was in a committed relationship when he testified in favor of keeping Maine’s now-overturned gay marriage law at a public hearing, four days after the discovery of the body of 50-year-old Fred Wilson and a couple of weeks before he was indicted.
The fatal shooting happened after the three men had been smoking pot, drinking beer, huffing aerosol inhalants and having sex over a 12-hour period in the basement of Wilson’s Colonial home in a middle-class neighborhood two blocks from the ocean.
One of the participants, James Pombriant, 65, says he first thought the others were playing a sick joke on him when he saw the flash of a handgun early on April 18, 2009.
Pombriant, who was engaged in a sex act with the victim when the shot rang out, says there was a moment of silence before Lavallee-Davidson said, “I think I killed him.”
Lavallee-Davidson, 50, contends the killing was an accident.
One of his lawyers, Mike Whipple, says his client checked three times over the course of the night to make sure the .44-caliber Rossi revolver wasn’t loaded. Whipple contends it’s likely Wilson loaded the gun while Lavallee-Davidson briefly stepped away to use the bathroom.
When Lavallee-Davidson returned, Wilson asked him to put the gun to his head and pull the trigger to intensify his pleasure, the defense contends. On the first try, there was a click when Lavallee-Davidson pulled the trigger. Wilson asked him to do it again, and there was a flash, the defense says.
After the shooting, Pombriant, of Auburn, and Lavallee-Davidson left Wilson’s body behind in the home over the course of the day before Pombriant called police that night. Police recovered the handgun used in the killing and a .12-gauge Mossberg shotgun that Lavallee-Davidson had taken to Wilson’s home for the sex games.
Deputy Attorney General Bill Stokes doesn’t dispute that the killing was unintended. Nonetheless, he said, the circumstances fit the legal definition of manslaughter, which means to cause death through recklessness or criminal negligence. Manslaughter carries a penalty of up 30 years in prison.
from The Associated Press

Casey Johnson & Tila Tequila

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Tila Tequila says she is struggling to cope with the sudden death of her purported fiance, Casey Johnson, the heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune.
“I can’t stop these haunting visions of her and I,” she wrote on her Twitter early Tuesday morning. “We made such a lovely couple, only beginning to spend the rest of our lives together…”
Johnson’s childhood pals, Paris and Nicky Hilton, also are struggling. (Paris originally asked Johnson to costar with her on the Fox reality show, The Simple Life, but Johnson turned the offer down; Nicky also is godmother to Casey’s adopted daughter, Ava, 3.)
“In bed crying, looking at baby pictures of Casey, Nicky and I,” Paris Twittered. “I feel so upset. I feel like I’ve lost a sister. My heart is broken. Miss her.”
A short time later, Paris added, “God has another Angel by his side. Casey, we all Love and Miss you and know that you are in a better place. R.I.P”
The 30-year-old Johnson — known for her wild partying ways that included drugs and alcohol — was found dead around 11:51 a.m. Monday in her Los Angeles home.
Her death may have been from natural causes since a preliminary investigation turned up no signs of foul play. A final cause of death will be determined by coroner’s officials, who will seek toxicology tests. Results of those tests could take six weeks to obtain.
In a statement to UsMagazine.com, her family says it “is mourning its tragic loss, and asks for privacy during this very difficult time.”
from US Magazine

Michael Griffin / Don Belton

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA – Was a sexual enc ounter between a well-respected professor and an ex-Marine the start of a new relationship or an assault?
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Michael Griffin claims the 53-year-old college professor sexually assaulted him.
The answer could be behind the brutal stabbing death of Indiana University professor Don Belton. A former Marine and Iraq veteran, 25-year-old Michael J. Griffin, has confessed to killing the 53-year-old man in retaliation for what he said were two sexual assaults on Christmas Day that Belton refused to apologize for.
But according to court documents, a journal found at Belton’s house contained notes he wrote in the week prior to Christmas that “he is very happy that an individual by the name of Michael has come into his life.”
Griffin has been charged with murder in the Dec. 27 attack that shocked Belton’s colleagues at IU Bloomington where he taught English as an assistant professor.
“He was a generous and talented professor who had much potential,” Provost Karen Hanson said in a statement on the school’s Web site. “We were shocked and saddened by his death.”
A candle-light vigil in Belton’s honor is planned for Friday on the university’s Bloomington campus.
Bloomington Police Lt. David Drake told ABCNews.com today that police “really don’t know” if the incident on Christmas Day was consensual or not.
When Griffin was arrested as his house the next day, Drake said, he was in possession of a 9mm gun and had his 2-year-old son with him. Drake said police had received a report that Griffin had made comments about wanting just one more night with his son and authorities were concerned he may try to harm himself or the little boy.
Griffin pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Wednesday. He is being held without bond. Drake said Griffin does not have a known record.
According to the probable cause affidavit, police were called to Belton’s home on Monday after a colleague found his body. He had been stabbed multiple times in the back and side.
Because it appeared nothing had been taken from the home, officers believed it “to be a crime of anger or passion.”
Along with the diary that spoke of Belton’s happiness with “Michael,” police said they also found a 4 x 6 card by the computer with a phone number, e-mail and directions for someone with the name “Griffin.” The address later led investigators to Griffin’s home, where he was taken into custody.
Shortly after Belton’s body was discovered, police in Batesville, Ind., called Bloomington detectives to tell them a woman, later identified to be Griffin’s girlfriend, had called to report that her boyfriend may have been involved with Belton’s murder.
Once in police custody, Griffin waived his rights and told investigators, according to the probable cause affidavit, that he went to Belton’s home on Sunday to confront him about the two sexual encounters, which Griffin described as assaults.
Drake said the sexual incidents allegedly occurred at Griffin’s home on Christmas Day during a gathering with friends. He declined to elaborate on the nature of the sexual acts.
The conversation turned into a scuffle and Griffin, according to the affidavit, brandished a knife called a “peace keeper” that he had purchased before deploying to Iraq with the Marine Corps.
“Mr. Griffin states that when he went to confront Mr. Belton about the two sexual assaults, he felt that Mr. Belton was not in any way forgiving and that he did not show or express any type of feeling that what had taken place was a mistake,” according to court papers.
Once the argument turned physical, according to the affidavit, Griffin “stabbed him until he quit moving” then left the house and changed clothes in his girlfriend’s pickup truck.
Police said he then went about running errands before dumping a white trash bag containing his bloody clothes. According to the affidavit, police searched the dumpster where Griffin claimed to have dumped the clothes, but the trash had already been collected.
from ABC News
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Stephen Gately

UNITED KINGDOM – Stephen Gately smoked cannabis and drank alcohol the night he died, a forensic report has confirmed.
But the Boyzone singer’s death was caused by an undiagnosed heart condition and was not linked to drink or drugs.
A report handed to a Spanish judge investigating the tragedy revealed the star suffered from atheromatosis, a thickening of the arteries. It also revealed he was dead for eight hours before his body was found.
Mr Gately, 33, died on October 10 in his £1million holiday home in Port d’Andratx, Majorca, after a night out with his 33-year-old partner Andy Cowles and a Bulgarian student, Georgi Dochev, 25.
Mr Dochev later told police he had seen Mr Gately smoke a cannabis cigarette back at the flat. He and Mr Cowles raised the alarm after finding Mr Gately’s lifeless body at 1.30pm.
A preliminary pathology report said the star died from an acute pulmonary oedema, a build-up of fluid on the lungs caused by the atheromatosis and said the death was due to ‘natural causes’.
from The Daily Mail
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Gerald Metcalf

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – A deadlocked jury forced a judge to declare a mistrial Tuesday for a Texas man accused of robbing and fatally stabbing a Pacific Beach resident at least 61 times after they met in San Diego 38 years ago.
Gerald Metcalf, 62, is charged in the Dec. 29, 1971, killing of 27-year- old Gerald Jackson.
Jurors told Judge David Gill that they were deadlocked 8-4 for guilt on the murder charge; four jurors thought Metcalf should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
A status conference was scheduled for Jan. 5. In her opening statement, prosecutor Jill Schall told jurors that the victim picked up the defendant in Horton Plaza after getting off work at a gay bar. Friends checking on Jackson found his naked body on Jan. 2, 1972, the prosecutor said.
Two of Jackson’s wallets were missing, along with a new stereo receiver and a Ford Torino, she said. The car was found abandoned in Mexico and the stereo receiver — with a bloody palm print on it — was sold at a pawn shop in the United States, the prosecutor said.
The case went dormant until 2008, when a “cold case” review was begun. DNA evidence and fingerprints at the scene tied Metcalf to the crime, Schall alleged. Metcalf had admitted to a friend that he stabbed someone and told him “he always wanted to know what it was like to kill someone,” the prosecutor told the jury.
Metcalf’s friend, Eddie Hamilton, never knew the defendant heard voices or had hallucinations, Schall said. In 1971, the pair traveled from Texas to Chula Vista and rented a room there, the prosecutor said. The day before the murder, the friends were short on money and Hamilton urged Metcalf to hit his relatives up for money. But Metcalf told Hamilton, “Maybe I’ll roll a queer,” Schall said.
Metcalf disappeared for a couple of days and when he returned to the room, he told Hamilton, “I killed a faggot and I had his car,” Schall told the jury.
Later, Metcalf told his friend that he met the victim in downtown San Diego and went back to his apartment on Hornblend Street, according to the prosecutor. Metcalf said he looked for things to steal while Jackson was in the shower.
He told Hamilton he undressed and got in the victim’s bed, then stabbed Jackson when he got in, the prosecutor alleged. Defense attorney David Lamb told the jury the fact that Metcalf stabbed Jackson was not the issue, but rather the defendant’s mindset at the time of the killing.
Lamb said Metcalf served in Vietnam in 1965 and was given an honorable discharge after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a mental illness that causes people to have hallucinations and delusions and think that others can control their minds.
“Mr. Metcalf has for 40 years suffered these symptoms, and they’re bad,” his attorney said. According to Metcalf’s wife, her husband has been committed to mental hospitals for months at a time to deal with delusions and hallucinations, Lamb said.
An expert said Metcalf had a “homosexual panic reaction” dating back to his time in the military when he stabbed Jackson, according to Lamb.
from San Diego News Network
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KANPUR, INDIA – Souring of relations between gay friends led to the brutal killing of a 35-year-old man, who was burnt with acid in the Rajivnagar Khanti area of the Shuklaganj in Unnao district here on Monday evening.
Investigations by the police have revealed that the deceased, identified as Salim, a resident of Patkapur was allegedly blackmailing his gay friend Muska to continue the relationship with him even after his marriage.
On Monday afternoon, the accused, Muska son of Qamaluddin of Jajmau, Budhiya Ghat along with one of his unidentified accomplices had reportedly burnt Salim to death by pouring sulphuric acid on his bare body at his rented accommodation in the Rajivnagar area of Shuklaganj in Unnao district.
The victim, lying in a semi-nude condition and writhing in pain inside his room, was spotted by his landlord Munna Churiwalah’s wife Mehrunissa.
She later informed the cops at the Shuklaganj police station about the incident. The police reached the spot and rushed the victim to the Ursala Horsman Hospital, where he breathed his last.
The police on Tuesday detained Muska’s father Qamaluddin alias Pahari Khad Wale, who informed them about the `surreptitious’ relationship between his son and victim Salim since the past nine years. “They were into homosexual kind of relations since the past nine years. Once my son Muska got married to a local girl in the month of June last, Salim became jealous of his wife and started blackmailing him. He even demanded a huge cash from my son Muska in lieu of not revealing their relationship to his wife.”
The police are now also looking into the role played by another unidentified man, who according to the locals had accompanied Muska to Salim’s place in Rajivnagar Khanti area. “Muska along with an unidentified man had come to my house located in Patkapur locality of the city on Monday afternoon and took my son Salim along with him at the former’s rented accommodation in the Rajivnagar Khanti area of Shuklaganj,” said Yaar Mohd, father of the deceased.
“The kin of Muska also said that he was being blackmailed by Salim, whom he once loved,” said a police official while talking to TOI.
The parents of the accused also revealed that since the past couple of days, he was reeling under acute depression as Salim had once again started harassing him by making fresh monetary demands to end the relationship,” the police further said.
While police have recovered an empty jerricane of sulphuric acid from the spot, they did not rule out the possibility of involvement of the other man, who the cops said had helped Muska of providing acid.
On the complaint made by Salim’s father, a case of murder has been registered at Shuklaganj police station against Muska, who is currently absconding, said CO, Unnao, Dinesh Singh while talking to TOI. Muska’s family members including his father Qamaluddin has been detained and investigations are on in this regard, he added.
from The Times Of India
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Andrew Grande

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA — A man who was tased by Bay County Sheriff’s deputies choked to death on a “large bag of marijuana,” sheriff’s officials said Friday morning. Part of the incident was caught on video recordings.
Authorities said Andrew Grande, 23, of 219 Placido Place, was running away from deputies at the Executive Inn on Front Beach Road after they responded to a physical disturbance there about 2 a.m. Friday. The deputies made contact with Crystal Amber Cronnon, 22, of 103 Dana Way, who identified Grande as the person who assaulted her. Officials said Cronnon is a friend of Grande’s and that the two had argued while Cronnon was driving in the area. Grande pushed her several times and then got out of the car near the Executive Inn, officials said.
A man, who identified himself as Cronnon’s father at the home on Dana Way, said she no longer lived there and would not talk to the media about the incident. He described her as very distraught.
Attempts to contact Grande’s family were not successful Friday.
When deputies confronted Grande, they were able to place a handcuff on his wrist, and during the struggle they observed Grande attempting to place something in his mouth.
The rest of the incident is caught on two video recordings for Tru TV and on a sheriff’s dashboard camera. A three-person crew was riding with deputies during the incident and caught most of it. The Sheriff’s Office released the recordings Friday. Tru TV officials did not return calls seeking comment.
One of the recordings opens with a deputy shouting, “Spit it out.”
The recording shows Grande on the ground while three deputies hold him down.
He is wheezing.
One of the Bay County Sheriff’s deputies is heard talking by radio with a dispatcher.
“He swallowed something,” the deputy says. Grande tries, desperately, to talk. The deputies have Grande’s right hand behind his back. He attempts to get up.
Deputies tell him to stop resisting or they will tase him, but he gets to his feet. They tase him and he immediately rips the stun gun’s prongs out of his chest.
He falls to the ground. While seated, he puts his hand in his mouth and down his throat in what appears to be an attempt to vomit. When that does not succeed, Grande slaps his hand against the concrete and then both of his hands against his chest.
“I can’t breathe,” he says. “I can’t breathe.”
The deputies perform the Heimlich maneuver, but they cannot get the object out of his throat.
“Let us help you, man,” one of them shouts. “Hang in there.”
After emergency medical technicians arrived, they removed the bag of marijuana from his throat with forceps, officials said. Grande was taken to Bay Medical Center and pronounced dead at the hospital, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. An autopsy was performed Friday afternoon and the preliminary cause of death is asphyxia due to obstruction of the airway by a foreign material, officials said.
Bay County Sheriff’s officials said three deputies were involved in the incident, Sgt. Billy Byrd, Deputy Rick Williams and Deputy David Higgins.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Sheriff Frank McKeithen said he felt bad for Grande’s family and for the deputies involved.
“These guys watched this person die and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it,” McKeithen said.
He said the deputies did not realize at first that Grande was choking and they initially believed he was overdosing. McKeithen said Grande likely only faced misdemeanor charges if he had just complied with the deputies.
“It could have been handled by compliance,” McKeithen said. “It pretty much ended up with him taking his own life.”
Officials said Grande had a minor criminal history, including arrests for battery and trespassing.
The deputies have been placed on administrative leave, and McKeithen has asked Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the incident. Both of those actions are common after a death that involves a deputy. None of the deputies have been reprimanded in their history with the Sheriff’s Office, McKeithen added.
from The News Herald
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Stephen Gately

A star-studded evening of music and tributes was held in memory of Stephen Gately.
Celebrities from the world of showbusiness including his Boyzone bandmates turned out for the memorial concert in London’s West End last night.
Crowds of fans gathered in the pouring rain for the event, organised by Gately’s civil partner Andrew Cowles.
Bandmates Ronan Keating, Mikey Graham, Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch looked solemn and did not stop to speak to waiting press as they went into the Palace Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue.
Among the celebrities on the red carpet were pop stars Duncan James and Lee Ryan from Blue, Chesney Hawkes, actor Leslie Phillips, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ judge Bruno Tonioli and even Cherie Blair.
Gately’s family and partner also attended.
The 33-year-old died of natural causes due to a pulmonary oedema on October 10 at his holiday home on the island of Majorca.
Hawkes said he was still in a “daze” after Gately’s death.
He said: “I spent a lot of time with him over the summer, got to know him quite well.
“We worked together quite a lot writing songs.
“He has become a friend.
“I am just still walking around in a daze really – such a shock, so young, so vibrant, such a lovely guy. It’s just so sad.”
Tonioli said he had become friends with Gately through the showbusiness industry and paid tribute to what he managed to achieve in his short life.
“He was a very, very nice guy. He was the kindest, sweetest, most generous kid,” he said.
“He was a very, very nice guy. He was the kindest, sweetest, most generous kid,” he said.
“It’s very tragic what happened but nevertheless we are here to celebrate his achievements because in that short time he managed to achieve a lot.
“As sad as it is, he has done amazingly.
“We are going to remember the good things.”
TV presenter Kristian Digby said Mr Cowles had “gone through hell and back” and criticised “negative” reporting of the singer’s death.
“He has got so many people wanting to show their friendship and love,” he added.
“Both of them are lovely guys – Stephen was, Andy is.”
Of the concert, Digby said it was “amazing” and showed how much “emotion and feeling” there was for Gately.
“This is very much a public showing of support for Stephen and the gay community.”
Digby described Gately as a “really fun, charismatic, loving, really gentle guy”.
As well as fans, the audience also included comedian Alan Carr, model and radio presenter Lisa Snowdon and ice skaters Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill.
Shayne Ward, who won the second series of ‘X Factor’, sang ‘To Where You Are’ by Josh Groban, which he dedicated to Gately.
Other performers included Liz McClarnon and Beverley Knight while a string of stars including Graham Norton and Ian McKellen were lined up to say a few words in his memory.
The event was compered by Christopher Biggins.
from Ireland On Line

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