The man who led police to the body of a transgender Newark teen apologized to the victim's family Friday before being sentenced to 11 years in prison in a case that focused the country's attention on violence against transgender individuals.Jaron Nabors, 23, stood in a Hayward courtroom and told Gwen Araujo's relatives that he is sorry for his role in the 17-year-old's slaying in 2002.
"I had the misfortune to be around people with the character -- or lack thereof -- that I have," Nabors said as Araujo's relatives wept.
"I know that my words offer nowhere near a sense of consolation. I do not forgive myself. I do not see how I ever can," said Nabors, who during the murder trial testified against three of his friends.
At a hearing at the Hayward Hall of Justice Friday, Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard agreed to delay by four weeks Nabors' entry into prison for security concerns. One of his co-defendants is still being processed at San Quentin State Prison, where inmates are taken before entering the state system.
Due to credit for time already served and other factors, Nabors will serve about five more years before being released.
Several of Araujo's family members delivered witness impact statements at the hearing. Nabors watched each speaker attentively but did not visibly react.
Araujo's mother, Sylvia Guerrero, told Nabors that her family is living in a prison of their own.
"When my daughter died, a part of me died, too, and the pain in my heart will never go away," she said.
Lupe Downing, Araujo's aunt, asked Nabors, "You still blame Gwen for her own death? Do you feel sorry for what you did, or are you sorry that you got caught?"
Downing said that part of her wants to sit down with Nabors and talk about what happened, but the other part feels "crazy for even giving you the time of day."
Attorney Gloria Allred read a statement on behalf of Araujo's uncle, David Guerrero, who was in tears in court.
"Mr. Nabors, you will have a second chance at life. Gwen will not," Allred said.
Outside court, David Guerrero talked to reporters. "Although he has accepted responsibility, I don't think he has accepted the fact that he has to pay for his consequences," he said.
Prosecutor Chris Lamiero, also speaking outside the courtroom, said he was satisfied with the case's outcome.
"On the whole, I think it's a very just end result," he said.
Referring to Araujo's family, Nabors' attorney, Anne Beles, told the judge, "One can only hope that they will be able to, as some family members said, move on in some semblance of peace that the people responsible are doing time for what they did."
Nabors pleaded guilty in February 2003 to voluntary manslaughter and promised to testify against his three co-defendants.
In 2004, a judge declared a mistrial in the first case after jurors agreed that the killing was murder but deadlocked over whether it was premeditated.
In September 2005, the jury in the second trial concluded that Michael Magidson, 25, and Jose Merel, 26, had beaten and strangled Araujo after learning that the person they had had oral and anal sex with was biologically male. The same panel deadlocked in favor of a second-degree murder conviction on Jason Cazares, 26.
In January, Magidson and Merel were sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder in Araujo's killing.
Cazares had struck a deal with prosecutors in December by pleading no contest to a lesser charge and received a six-year sentence.
Merel is the co-defendant who is still being processed at San Quentin.
Araujo was born Edward Araujo but lived and identified as a girl. The four men had known Araujo as Lida.
At both trials, Nabors testified articulately and provided the prosecution with a powerful witness who described discussions he had with his three friends in the days leading up to the slaying. But defense attorneys branded Nabors a perjurer who provided self-serving testimony that was full of holes and had falsely claimed to have an omniscient view of the case.
Nabors testified that in the week before Araujo was killed, the four friends debated whether Araujo was indeed female.
They discovered her gender after cornering her in a bathroom during a party at Merel's house in Newark in October 2002, prosecutors said.
Magidson choked Araujo, and Merel cried and said in disbelief, "I can't be f -- gay," Nabors testified.
Merel struck Araujo in the head with a vegetable can and skillet, Nabors said. Nabors said he and Cazares had then gone to Cazares' home to get some shovels.
Cazares said, "We're going to get some shovels. They're going to kill that b -- ," according to Nabors.
Araujo's last words were, "Please don't. I have a family," Nabors testified.
Araujo was buried in a shallow grave in the Sierra foothills east of Placerville in El Dorado County. Nabors led police to her body.
from The San Francisco Chronicle
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