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) — Prosecutors rested their case against Aaron McKinney Friday after police detectives testified that McKinney admitted he intended to rob Matthew Shepard before beating the gay student.

Police detectives told jurors that McKinney confessed he and one-time co-defendant Russell Henderson never planned to kill Shepard. The beating, McKinney said in his confession, started when Shepard made an unwanted sexual pass at him.

"I hit him [Shepard] ... and he kept throwing himself all over me," McKinney said in the taped police statement. "We had really no intention of hurting this guy. It was to take him out and scare him and take his wallet and leave."

The lead investigator in Shepard's slaying, Rob DeBree, testified that McKinney claimed Shepard threatened to turn him and Henderson in to police for cocaine and methamphetamine abuse in exchange for sex.

McKinney's own police statement undermines his defense that he did not intend to rob Shepard and that he was drunk and high on drugs when he killed the victim last October. According to the defense, McKinney went into a blind rage after Shepard, a gay student, allegedly made an unwanted pass at him. The defense argued that this rage — and McKinney's fatal beating of Shepard — was spurred partly by the defendant's own prior homosexual experience and aggravated by drug and alcohol abuse. The defense has argued that McKinney was sexually abused by a male neighborhood bully when he was 7 years old and had a "confusing" experience at age 15 with one of his cousins.

But that defense theory ran into a roadblock Wednesday when Judge Barton Voigt told defense attorney Dion Custis that he found no provisions in state law that allow him to present a so-called "gay panic defense." Judge Voigt said that unless McKinney's lawyers find a state law that would allow this strategy, he would bar the defense from presenting evidence about the gay panic theory.

In addition, jurors Thursday heard McKinney's taped jailhouse confession where he said he delivered the beating while Henderson stood by and laughed. McKinney also admitted he continued beating Shepard after the gay student begged for mercy. In addition, McKinney apparently admitted that he hit Shepard a final three times when the gay student was able to read back the license plate numbers on his truck.

McKinney's defense is expected to begin Friday afternoon. If convicted of first-degree murder, McKinney could face the death penalty.

— Bryan Robinson