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Newark Man Admits To Killing Lesbian Teen
Plea Deal Avoids Bias Murder Charge and Possible 118-Year Sentence
Mar 4, 2005 9:40 am US/Eastern
NEWARK (AP) A man charged with fatally stabbing a 15-year-old because she was a lesbian has pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in a deal with prosecutors that will likely get him a prison sentence of 25 years or less.
Richard McCullough had been charged with bias murder in the May 2003 killing of Sakia Gunn. That charge was dropped in exchange for Thursday's plea, which he seemed reluctant at first to give.
"I stood in a defensive stance with my knife in my hand and she lunged at me,'' McCullough told Superior Court Judge Paul Vichness.
The judge did not accept that explanation. He threatened to reject the plea and order the case be sent to a jury trial, where McCullough could have been sent to prison for 118 years had he been found guilty on all the charges he faced.
It was then that McCullough, 30, said he slashed Gunn. McCullough also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and bias intimidation.
Gunn and four other girls were waiting for a bus at 3:30 a.m. in downtown Newark after a night in New York's Greenwich Village when McCullough and another man drove up and asked them if they wanted to go to a party.
Officials say the girls responded that they were lesbians and were uninterested.
The men began spewing homophobic insults, then a physical fight began, authorities said. Gunn was stabbed as she came to the defense of a friend.
The case galvanized the previously quiet gay and lesbian community in New Jersey's biggest city and led to a debate about bias crime laws. McCullough's lawyer at one point challenged the constitutionality of the state's 24-year-old statute, which gives stiffer penalties to people convicted of committing crimes because they don't like a victim's race, sexual orientation or nationality.
The slaying drew attention to the gay community and led then-Governor McGreevey to proclaim in 2004 the date of Gunn's slaying ``No Name Calling Day.''
Vichness said he would sentence McCullough on April 21, most likely to a prison term between 20 and 25 years. He would have to serve 85 percent of it before being eligible for parole.
Plea Deal Avoids Bias Murder Charge and Possible 118-Year Sentence
Mar 4, 2005 9:40 am US/Eastern
NEWARK (AP) A man charged with fatally stabbing a 15-year-old because she was a lesbian has pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in a deal with prosecutors that will likely get him a prison sentence of 25 years or less.
Richard McCullough had been charged with bias murder in the May 2003 killing of Sakia Gunn. That charge was dropped in exchange for Thursday's plea, which he seemed reluctant at first to give.
"I stood in a defensive stance with my knife in my hand and she lunged at me,'' McCullough told Superior Court Judge Paul Vichness.
The judge did not accept that explanation. He threatened to reject the plea and order the case be sent to a jury trial, where McCullough could have been sent to prison for 118 years had he been found guilty on all the charges he faced.
It was then that McCullough, 30, said he slashed Gunn. McCullough also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and bias intimidation.
Gunn and four other girls were waiting for a bus at 3:30 a.m. in downtown Newark after a night in New York's Greenwich Village when McCullough and another man drove up and asked them if they wanted to go to a party.
Officials say the girls responded that they were lesbians and were uninterested.
The men began spewing homophobic insults, then a physical fight began, authorities said. Gunn was stabbed as she came to the defense of a friend.
The case galvanized the previously quiet gay and lesbian community in New Jersey's biggest city and led to a debate about bias crime laws. McCullough's lawyer at one point challenged the constitutionality of the state's 24-year-old statute, which gives stiffer penalties to people convicted of committing crimes because they don't like a victim's race, sexual orientation or nationality.
The slaying drew attention to the gay community and led then-Governor McGreevey to proclaim in 2004 the date of Gunn's slaying ``No Name Calling Day.''
Vichness said he would sentence McCullough on April 21, most likely to a prison term between 20 and 25 years. He would have to serve 85 percent of it before being eligible for parole.
. That's always the mature response to someone who says they aren't interested (and gee, if they weren't interested before, they sure aren't going to be after being insulted and attacked, morons). And I'm glad the judge didn't buy that guy's explanation...can't say I do, either.
Irving- I never got to post my thots in your question thread though I got to read alot of the serious stuff......I'm so sorry & 
to hear of yet another utterly henious homophobic crime.
Did that jerk honestly believe the judge and jury were stupid enough to believe that statement?! "I wuz just standin' there holdin' mah knife, and she threw herself on it!" 
This judge is an idiot.
