Community reaction was mixed following last week's plea-bargain deal for the final defendant in the Gwen Araujo murder trial, with some expressing anger over a lack of justice for the transgender teenager's death, and others emphasizing that the deal at least ensured a punishment and criminal record for Jason Cazares despite two separate juries being unable to reach a conviction in his case.
Cazares, 25, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, a felony, at the Hayward Hall of Justice last Friday, December 16, for his role in Araujo's killing in October 2002. Under the deal, Cazares will face the midterm manslaughter sentence of six years. A violent felony requires that criminals serve 85 percent of their sentence, but Cazares will get some credit for the approximately one year and nine months he has already served.
The Bay Area Reporter could not reach family members for comment on the plea-bargain. Sylvia Guerrero, Araujo's mother, did not attend the most recent hearing, but did tell a local news outlet that she was upset with the deal, despite understanding it from a legal standpoint.
Representatives from the Alameda County District Attorney's office said that the family's unhappiness was understandable, but that the deal was a result of careful thinking and months of negotiations.
"All things considered, I think that the outcome is an appropriate one. I know that the family certainly wanted more, and I understand that and appreciate it," Deputy District Attorney Chris Lamiero told the B.A.R., adding that two things were important to him during negotiations. "One was that he plead to an offense that involved killing Gwen. The other was that he go to prison, and not simply get credit for the time he already served. He's got a lifelong felony strike and he has to serve 85 percent of his sentence before parole. So we have that.
"I know the family is not happy, but I hope at some point they understand I thought about this a great deal and discussed it with the district attorney and the conclusion was this was the best thing to do."
Araujo, 17, was born as a boy named Eddie but lived as a female in her East Bay hometown of Newark, since the age of 14. She was brutally beaten and strangled at a house party following the discovery of her birth sex. Defendants claimed that her gender "deception" caused their violent "gay panic" reaction.
Cazares's plea wraps up more than three years of criminal proceedings that included two murder trials, and for Cazares, two consecutive mistrials as a result of two separate juries being unable to convict him of murder. Cazares's co-defendants, Jose Merel, 26, and Michael Magidson, 25, were convicted of second-degree murder at the end of the second trial in September. A fourth defendant, Jaron Nabors, 22, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with an 11-year prison term in exchange for testimony against his three friends.
It has not been lost on community members that Cazares will serve less time than Nabors, the other plea-bargained defendant in the case who was deemed by many to be more cooperative with law enforcement and less involved in Araujo's murder. Nabors, the prosecution's star witness, provided often-corroborated testimony about the men's early suspicions of Araujo's gender and their respective roles in the physical violence against her. Nabors also testified throughout both trials that Cazares left the house party while Araujo was still alive in order to retrieve shovels to bury her body once she died, an implication that Cazares acted willingly and knowingly in Araujo's killing. Defense attorneys, however, raised questions about Nabors's credibility, and suggested that he committed some of the violence that led to Araujo's death.
"It's definitely difficult. The comparison to Jaron's sentence has been made," said Erin Osanna, victim-witness advocate for Alameda County's District Attorney's office, who worked closely with Lamiero and Araujo's family. "It's not fair. But without Jaron we wouldn't have had two murder convictions. As an advocate, what do you do? It's better to get something in the [Cazares] case rather than risk not getting anything."
Many believed the case was always the weakest against Cazares, despite the prosecution's assertion in the first trial that he was the ringleader of the group. Testimony and police tapes during the second trial revealed that the friends at first agreed not to tell police that Cazares was at the scene of the crime. In both trials, witnesses also refused to implicate Cazares in the violence against Araujo.
Retrying Cazares a third time – this time without the three other defendants – would have made for an even weaker case, said Lamiero.
"To try him again as a lone defendant would have been more difficult than when he was with others," he said. "If the jury deadlocked again after a third trial, the defense would have all the leverage and we wouldn't be able to justify anything but a dismissal. That bargaining leverage certainly was something that weighed heavily in the process."
Despite the odds, though, Lamiero said he would have retried the case if Tony Serra, defense attorney for Cazares, stuck to his original assertion that his client should receive nothing more than an accessory after the fact conviction.
"We were prepared to try it a third time if need be, and anything short of what we got would have been rejected by us," said Lamiero.
Reaction
Chris Daley, director of San Francisco's Transgender Law Center, also worked closely with Araujo's family and monitored the case for years. Although he acknowledged that the DA's office discussed a manslaughter plea immediately after Cazares's second mistrial, he said the plea-bargain still stung.
"Our reaction is that there is something about this plea-bargain that feels less than satisfactory," said Daley. "But I think that's also part of grieving for someone who died. I think the best thing we can all do is figure out how to keep Gwen's memory alive, and to make sure California is a state that truly supports trans people and their families."
Daley said community members can contribute to school trainings and education, advocate for strong prosecution of hate crimes, and rally around upcoming state legislation such as AB1160 that aims to ban the "gay panic" and other criminal defenses that use a victim's personal characteristics as justification for murder.
"The sense that this doesn't feel right is the realization that we're all hurting," said Daley. "But we have to have a judicial system that respects the rights of defendants, if for no other reason than trans people often find themselves as defendants in criminal trials. This is what the system produced. That's part of living in a civil society. This guy has been on trial twice and the jury hung on the question of murder and that's how we ended up with manslaughter."
But transgender activist Shawna Virago said the plea-bargain was simply an extension of a series of disappointments with the case, including not winning hate crime enhancements for the two murder convictions, and the fact that the jury ever deadlocked on Cazares at all.
"As a trans woman I never felt justice was served in this case. I felt there was mixed messaging all along, from people who said Gwen's gender shouldn't play a big part in this case to people who said it played a huge part in this case, and I felt the district attorney was unclear on the best way to approach that," said Virago. "I feel that Jason Cazares actually has denied his responsibility in this case, even though he was a participant. I feel he should have a much more severe sentence and I don't feel justice for Gwen has been achieved."
Sentencing for all three defendants is scheduled for January 27, 2006, and at that time letters to the judge from community members will be accepted, said Lamiero. Although sentencing is fixed, letters "will follow these defendants to prison," he said, and could influence their future  parole hearings. San Francisco-based community advocate Connie Champagne also noted that Cazares asked for his custody to be delayed until after his third child is born in March. Lamiero will object to this in January, and community members can express their concerns to the judge on this matter as well.
Letters can be addressed to the Honorable Judge Harry Sheppard, Hayward Hall of Justice, 24405 Amador Street, Department 510, Hayward, CA 94544.