THE MATTHEW SHEPARD SLAYING
				Discuss the case Nov. 19 1998 Update Dec. 11, 1998 Update Russell Henderson's Guilty Plea and Sentencing June 25 Update Oct. 8 1999 Update (Background Report) Oct. 11 (Jury Selection) Oct. 14 Update Oct. 22 Update Oct. 25 Update (Opening Statements) Oct. 26 Update Oct. 27 Update Oct. 28 Update (Morning) Oct. 28 Update (Afternoon) Oct. 29 Update (Morning) Oct. 29 Update (Afternoon) Nov. 1 Update (Morning) Nov. 1 Update (Evening) Nov. 2 Update (Closing Arguments) Nov. 3 Update (Jury Deliberations) Nov. 3 (The Verdict) "Gay Panic" Ruling

LARAMIE, Wyo. (Court TV) — According to Aaron McKinney's defense, he did not intend to kill Matthew Shepard when he beat him to death last year. In fact, McKinney's defense told jurors in opening statements Monday, it was Shepard himself who sent Mckinney into an uncontrollable rage by making an unwelcome sexual advance.

Wyoming prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against McKinney, whom they say was the mastermind behind Shepard's brutal slaying last October. McKinney, along with cohort and former friend Russell Henderson, met Shepard at a bar, allegedly pretended to be gay and lured the University of Wyoming student into the pickup truck McKinney was driving. There, Shepard was pistol-whipped, beaten, robbed, tied to a fence and left to die in freezing temperatures.

Bloody and unconscious, Shepard was found 18 hours later and taken to the hospital. He died five days after being admitted.

In opening statements Monday, defense attorney Jason Tangeman said Shepard, not McKinney, was the aggressor the night he died and that he sought out McKinney and Henderson for a ride. Tangeman suggested that Shepard was looking for a sexual partner that night and even gave McKinney a false home address while they drove. Shepard, Tangeman said, made an unwanted advance towards McKinney when he put his hand on the defendant's groin and stuck his tongue in McKinney's ear.

According to defense, these alleged acts sent McKinney into a rage that was aggravated by his abuse of alcohol and methamphetamines. McKinney's actions, Tangeman said, were aggravated by and partly rooted in his past homosexual experience — which included prior sexual abuse by a male neighborhood bully and a "confusing" experience at age 15 with one of his cousins.

Tangeman stressed that McKinney is not guilty of murder in Shepard's death. Instead, the defense said, McKinney should be convicted of manslaughter. But Tangeman did try to suggest that Shepard did not deserve to die.

"Did Matthew Shepard deserve to die?" the defense attorney asked jurors. "No manslaughter victim deserves to die."

However, prosecutor Cal Rerucha stressed in his openings that it was McKinney who pursued and lured Shepard because he wanted to rob him. Shepard's beating, Rerucha said, was brutal and heinous. Perhaps countering the defense suggestion that McKinney's rage was uncontrollable, Rerucha said that during his beating, McKinney asked Shepard if he could see the license plate on his truck. When Shepard replied yes, the prosecutor told jurors, McKinney proceeded to strike him viciously several times — an attack that led to his death.

Custis admitted that his client was responsible for Shepard's death and said he would not blame Henderson. Henderson pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of felony murder with robbery and kidnapping as the jury was being selected for his trial last April. He claimed that he witnessed, but did not participate in, Shepard's murder and insisted he did not benefit from the proceeds of the robbery. According to Henderson, it was McKinney's idea to rob and beat Shepard.

The state also called three witnesses — the bicylicist who discovered Shepard's body, the man who called 911 after being notified by the bicylist that someone was in trouble, and the first law enforcement officer on the scene. That officer said Shepard's face was covered with blood, except for two streaks where his tears washed away the blood.

The prosecution will continue calling witnesses Tuesday morning.

— Bryan Robinson