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Teen Pleads Guilty In Fatal Gay Beating

Cortez Victim Was Openly Gay, Sometimes Dressed As Girl

POSTED: 8:13 a.m. MST February 8, 2002
UPDATED: 9:58 a.m. MST February 8, 2002

A New Mexico teenager pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the beating death of a 16-year-old Cortez boy.

Cortez beating victim -- Fred Martinez Jr.

Shaun Murphy of Farmington, N.M., entered the plea Thursday in Montezuma County District Court. Charges of first-degree murder and attempted escape were dropped.

Murphy, 18, is accused of brutally beating Fred Martinez Jr. (pictured, left), whose body was found in a canyon June 21 just south of Cortez.

Gay-rights advocates have raised the question of whether Martinez was killed because of his sexual orientation. Martinez was an openly gay Navajo teen who sometimes dressed as a girl and was considered transgendered.

But authorities have declined to call his death a hate crime.

During a preliminary hearing in September, Murphy's lawyer, Pamela Brown, said Murphy was fighting in self-defense the night of June 16 when he struck Martinez in the head with a rock.

But according to the Cortez Journal, one witness claimed that Murphy had bragged that he had "beat up a fag."

Murphy was arrested after a tip to Crimestoppers. He will be sentenced May 16 and faces between four and 48 years in prison.

Martinez's mother said at the hearing that she believes Murphy deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison.

"My home is so quiet without Fred," she said. "I have nobody to laugh with. I just miss him so much."

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