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) — Though the trial judge in the Matthew Shepard murder trial has not yet ruled on the so-called "gay panic" defense of Aaron McKinney, defense lawyers began their case Friday, presenting witnesses who suggested the gay student was being sexually-forward the night he was attacked.

One witness Friday testified that he saw Shepard in the Fireside Lounge bar, where he encountered McKinney and his one-time co-defendant Russell Henderson. According to this witness, Shepard came up to him, whispered something in his ear, and licked his lips in a sexually-suggestive manner. The witness said he was offended by what he felt was forwardness by a blatantly gay man.

McKinney is on trial for first-degree murder in Shepard's beating death. Prosecutors say he and Russell Henderson pretended to be gay and lured Shepard into McKinney's truck where they intended to rob him. Shepard was pistol-whipped and beaten brutally and later tied to a fence. He was found 18 hours later and died in a hospital after five days in a coma.

McKinney admits beating Shepard while Henderson watched. But the defense says McKinney is guilty of manslaughter, not murder. McKinney, his lawyers claim, went into a blind rage after Shepard allegedly made an unwanted pass at him. The defense argued in opening statements 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.

McKinney's lawyers have insisted that they are not employing a so-called "gay panic defense." They have argued that McKinney's prior homosexual experience and abuse would help explain why he reacted the way he did to Shepard's alleged advance and would give insight into his state of mind. On Friday, McKinney's lawyers said they would present fact lay witnesses to advance their defense theory and not the expert witnesses they had previously proposed. Judge Voigt said he would decide over the weekend whether McKinney's lawyers could proceed with their strategy and announce his decision Monday.

Another defense witness Friday seemed to support the defense's claim that McKinney was high on methamphetamines on the night of beating, saying he saw the defendant take a quarter gram of the substance that day. However, the defense still has to contend with McKinney's incriminating police confession. Prosecutors rested their case against McKinney Friday after police detectives testified that McKinney admitted he intended to rob Matthew Shepard before beating him.

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."

If convicted of first-degree murder, McKinney could face the death penalty.

— Bryan Robinson