07/20/2009
Hearing Held in Lawrence King Case: Teen Killer Bragged About Guns
Teacher Speaks for First Time
A pretrial hearing was held in the case of the murder of Lawrence King at which it was revealed that King's killer, classmate Brandon McInerney, bragged about having guns at home he could use "if he ever wanted to kill someone," the L.A. Times reports:
"McInerney made the comment to another
student at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard sometime before walking
into the classroom and allegedly gunning down gay classmate Larry King
on the morning of Feb. 12, 2008, said Oxnard police Sgt. Kevin
Baysinger. 'Brandon said if he ever wanted to kill anybody, his dad had a bunch
of guns and he had the capability,' Baysinger told the court. Other
witness testified that McInerney, then 14, and King had been feuding
over King's alleged romantic overtures toward McInerney. McInerney
was clearly irritated after King, 15, reportedly said, 'Baby, I love
you,' the day before the shooting occurred, based on interviews with
students. Other students reported similar threats, he said. McInerney reportedly told one of King's friends the day before
the shooting, 'Tell Larry goodbye because you're not going to see him
again,' Baysinger said. Other students reported similar threats, he
said."
A disgusting line of questioning from the defense suggests that they're going to try and use some sort of "gay panic" defense:
"Defense attorney Scott Wippert sought to show that King provoked violence by taunting McInerney with his effeminate dress and romantic pursuit. At one point, Wippert sharply questioned Oxnard police Officer Ramiro Albarran. 'Did you inquire if Larry King was making sexual advances toward McInerney … you do realize he’s charged with first-degree murder? That he was provoked?' Wippert said."
Over the weekend, the L.A. Times interviewed Dawn Boldrin, the teacher in the classroom who witnessed King's murder. She had apparently been grappling with how to handle King as she saw him wrestling with his sexual identity and experimenting with make-up and women's clothes. She said none of the other teachers would deal with it:
"Before school started one day, she tucked her oldest daughter's shimmery homecoming dress into a gift bag and presented it Larry. He ran to the bathroom and tried on the green strapless gown. 'I wanted him to know that not everyone looks at you in a negative way,' Boldrin said. 'The world's a big place -- enjoy it.' Boldrin had helped other students in the past. 'I just didn't see a problem with it,' she said of her gift to Larry. 'I'm a teacher, and I thought with my heart.'"
Boldrin gave King the dress five days before the killing. On the day of the murder, she said that she had warned him about flaunting his "effeminate manner" in front of boys who she had heard "roughed him up."
Said Boldrin: "Look Larry, you can't shove this into people's faces. That's as wrong as them saying there's something wrong with you."
Posted 6:06 PM EST by Andy Towle | Permalink
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She sounds like a good person. I hope she isn't crucified.
Posted by: Washington | Jul 20, 2009 6:22:55 PM
In grade school a girl named Sheila was after me like crazy. She literally hounded me all day long. So I killed her, and everyone totally understood, because she provoked me.
Posted by: LD | Jul 20, 2009 6:27:57 PM
this is simply a case of one teach getting involved where others "dropped the ball". If King was bothering this kid...he should have been brought in and told to stop it. If this McInnery bragged about guns, his parents should be held accountable for allowing him to get access to them.
this boy should have also been pulled aside and told to just ignore King, but my guess is the administrators got a kick out of this little homo bothering this thug of a kid.
this whole case makes me angry...because niether boy behaved correctly.
Posted by: Paul | Jul 20, 2009 6:40:37 PM
She sounds like a very caring teacher, though it also seems like she was sending mixed messages---giving a boy a dress, then telling him not to act effeminate. But I understand her motives.
Wait for the defense to blame the murder on her.
Posted by: Paul R | Jul 20, 2009 6:45:44 PM
Paul R, it sounds like she was giving him the same advice I, a grown up, reasonably well adjusted gay guy would give a gay kid figuring himself out - "be who you are, but be aware that there are people who still cant deal with it, so be careful."
Its a tough line to walk, and a lot of kids end up damaged by trying to reconcile the two in ways that arent constructive - but as long as theres still a "gay panic" defense, its the burden our kids have to bear.
The only silver lining is as homophobia hopefully continues to subside over the next few generations, the nonsense of the "gay panic" defense will hopefully be recognized as the bullshit it is, and even if kids still have to walk this line, there will be greater support on the sides to keep them from falling into darkness.
Posted by: Matt R. | Jul 20, 2009 7:10:10 PM
This is a sad case all the way around. Sad that young Lawrence King was murdered and sad that his juvenile killer is being tried as an adult. After the Colombine shootings this country went into an absolute panic and changed our criminal laws to treat juveniles as adults. This is just an ugly country, obsessed with revenge and score-settling. This young murderer deserves a second chance and YES, he deserves a second chance even though Larry doesn't get one.
Posted by: JimSur212 | Jul 20, 2009 8:20:33 PM
He"deserves a second chance"? Want to adopt him?
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Jul 20, 2009 8:49:49 PM
David, adopting him has nothing to do with it. The kid was 14. If he had sex with a man, we would say that his brain had not matured enough to be responsible for his decision and therefore was not capable of giving legal consent. Well, the brain does not develop at one rate to comprehend the ramifications of sex and a different rate to understand the ramifications of crime. Or to put it another way, if he is child if he blows a person - he is a child if he blows one away with a handgun. No one should be punished for their entire life for a crime they commit at 14 - no matter how heinous the act.
Posted by: JimSur212 | Jul 20, 2009 9:35:50 PM
I suspect the teacher had good intentions, but she might have stepped over the line with the dress thing. But I do hope people don't jump all over her.
Posted by: JoeTynan | Jul 20, 2009 9:49:40 PM
I feel ***immensely*** sorry for Ms. Boldrin. She was truly in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Posted by: Rationalist | Jul 20, 2009 10:31:02 PM
actually IF/or more so when - they make a movie about this tragedy, it should be written from HER point of view.
Posted by: Disgusted American | Jul 20, 2009 10:42:27 PM
Jimsur212, I'm going to have to politely disagree. At 14, children should have learned the difference between right and wrong; killing a person should have be taught as wrong.
Posted by: Yuki | Jul 20, 2009 10:44:47 PM
if they do make a movie the actor Mark Indelicato from Ugly Betty should play King
Posted by: Rooney | Jul 20, 2009 10:53:35 PM
Perhaps the fact that Larry was the chief "bitch" of a cabal of teenage girls who taunted Brandon and his friends during lunch by sending Larry over to "clear the lunch table for them" by taking a position at the lunch table and asking whether the boys minded if he sat there had something to do with the rage Brandon developed toward Larry?
Oh the fag hags in training giggled away, when Brandon and his friends left the table in disgust, at the expense of Brandon.... and now we know at the expense of Larry's life as well.
Is any mainstream press going to report this fact that also came out today?
Posted by: Morongo Basin Ombudsman | Jul 20, 2009 11:47:04 PM
Morongo,
The mainstream media hasn't reported that "fact" because (a) no one involved in the brutal murder has even claimed that to be the case, and (b) even if that were true, Larry having sat next to someone at a lunch table isn't at all relevant to the events that happened.
Your comments are tantamount to claiming that a 15 year old gay kid should have known better than to simply exist in the same world as other fifth graders. You even go as far as to call him a "chief bitch" and his friends "fag hags in training." I guess you think he really had it coming to him, don't you?
I have a pretty thick skin. I think Obama is doing a great job, I loved the movie Bruno, and I still proudly donate to the DNC. But even I think your comments cross the line. Leap great bounds across the line. You sir, are a repulsive idiot.
Posted by: Aaron Rowland | Jul 21, 2009 2:42:40 AM
Small edit, I mean "eighth graders" instead of "fifth graders."
Posted by: Aaron Rowland | Jul 21, 2009 2:46:16 AM
watch 20/20 and that bitch Elizabeth Vargas do a piece to support Brandon the murderer even though EV's husband also got shot in the head (and survived).
Morongo, you should drop the last two letters in your first name.
Posted by: mike in houston | Jul 21, 2009 3:05:43 AM
JimSur212... you're not correct about Columbine being the cause for children being held as adults for murder. Many states, for many years, have specifically excluded Criminal Homicide from their Juvenile Delinquency Courts. Other have not.
It's very easy to oversimplify this issue; children charged with criminal homicide evoke much more sympathy than adults charged with the same. At the same time, we also have to keep in mind the fact that someone is dead. We need to keep in mind the fact that this child brought a gun to school and deliberately shot another child to death for expressing himself. He planed to murder another person.
This wasn't, despite what the defense may try to claim, a case of "I hit him because he grabbed my crotch and he hit his head when he hit the floor and it's involuntary manslaughter, please". This is "I brought a gun to school because I didn't like the faggot flirting with me and shot him in the face in the middle of class". That's premeditation. That's First Degree Murder. That's life in prison. At least we don't put them on death row nay more, and that's where we take into account their lack of brain development.
Maybe you think LWOP is too harsh. But in many states, the juvenile court's jurisdiction expires when the child reaches 18 or 21; do you think 6 years in a facility for juvenile delinquency is a fair punishment for Murder?
Posted by: DR | Jul 21, 2009 9:06:56 AM
IF what Morongo reported is true, it actually would be relevant to the case (if it shows a growing potentially explosive situation egged on by the other kids).
Posted by: JT | Jul 21, 2009 11:09:09 AM
OK, so there have been hundreds of thousands of cases of straight boys tormenting gay or effeminate boys in schools over the years. What's happened to ameliorate that? Not much.
But a gay boy teases a straight boy and gets murdered point blank, and gay men here are defending the straight boy because the gay boy went too far in the cafeteria. How would you like the gay panic excuse if it applied to one of your friends?
No, teens aren't the same as adults. But this was premeditated murder. Were you killing people when you were 14 because you didn't like being teased?
Posted by: Paul R | Jul 21, 2009 11:22:05 PM
If this were a little white straight girl that this boy killed, we wouldn't even be discussing this.
He would be tried as an adult.
When we as a society teach our children that gay and lesbian people are worthless, we cannot be surprised when our children actually believe it and act out on it. That doesn't excuse it, by any means, but if you take a look at the murderer's parents and what they might have taught this little murderer, I would be willing to bet that they taught him nothing but disrespect and hatred toward Gay and Lesbian people.
It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO time for Heterosexuals to deal with their character flaws. Becasue they are, literally, destroying people's lives.
Posted by: Bill | Jul 22, 2009 12:08:56 PM
What about a "straight panic" defense? If I am hit on by straight women and I am disgusted and cause them bodily harm can I say it was "straight panic"?
I doubt it. I would just tell the women that I'm not interested but macho straight guys are allowed to kill to defend their masculinity.
Posted by: nick | Jul 22, 2009 1:40:00 PM
I was taunted and ridiculed and humiliated every minute of every day when I was in school. Something tells me I could not have been excused if I had killed my tormentors.
Posted by: hephaestion | Jul 22, 2009 8:21:24 PM
i think this kid was just races
i mean there was probably other gAy kids
in there school campus but the oher gAy kids never actually pay attention to him and larry did so it was easy to kill him because it was an easy target.
Posted by: marisol | Aug 23, 2009 2:04:31 PM
America's schools are fundamentaly disfunctional. They are not safe, and do little to promote classroom identedy. This school should consider buying uniforms and enforcing a dress policy. Individualism is a wonderfull thing to express as an adult, but young students have a job to do at school which is a duty to themselves! Students are wearing less and less clothes to school and should be covered out of respect. Tucked in shirts and pants pulled up to the waist should be standard. High heels in junior high are a liablity, I don't care who is wearing them, they don't belong on students' feet! High heels are not safe for kids to wear and distort their growing feet and spine, just ask any orthopedic doctor or chiropractor and they will tell you that they are bad. I also don't think that enough effort was put forth in protecting this student from violence from others... or his own self-destructive behaviors.
Posted by: Marl | Nov 17, 2009 6:20:06 PM