Slaying prompts vigil, talk on tolerance

Slaying prompts vigil, talk on tolerance

Aug. 14, 2001

JERVIS MITCHELL, brother of slain teenager Fred Martinez Jr.; Pauline Mitchell (center), Martinez’s mother, and Carolyn Wagner, vice president of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, watch a speaker during Saturday night’s vigil in Martinez’s memory. More than 100 people turned out for the night’s event.

By Katharhynn Heidelberg
Journal Staff Writer

More than 100 community members and guests attended a ceremony Saturday night aimed at spreading a message: Cortez will not tolerate violence against any child.

Music and memories honored Fred "F.C." Martinez Jr. at the candlelight vigil in Cortez’s Parque de Vida.

Martinez, who was openly transgendered, died on June 16. His body was discovered south of Cortez on June 21. Shaun Murphy, 18, of Farmington, is being held on first- and second-degree murder charges in Martinez’s death.

Mourners lit candles and held flowers in memory of a young life cut short.

"Fred has brought us all together," his mother, Pauline Mitchell, said. "Never again will we allow our children and loved ones to suffer or walk alone."

Mitchell received an outpouring of support and sympathy from crowd members.

"Every child’s death is a tragedy. Had Fred been a different person, his death might not have happened so early, or so violently," said John Peters-Campbell of the Four Corners Gay and Lesbian Alliance for Diversity.

While law-enforcement officers are unable to comment on whether Martinez’s death was a hate crime, his friends, family and members of the gay and lesbian community believe his murder to have motivated by Martinez’s "difference."

Hate crimes are all about "who you are," Peters-Campbell said. Mothers who had lost their children to hate crimes provided poignant agreement.

"I am here as a mother. . . whose life was changed by the loss of a child," Judy Shepard said. Shepard’s son, Mathew, who was gay, was beaten to death near Laramie, Wyo., nearly three years ago.

‘NO GAYS or lesbians wanted here" reads a sign on a truck parked at the county annex during Sunday’s forum on community healing and the slaying of Fred Martinez Jr.

"We cannot remain silent" about hate crimes, she added, citing several crimes that she recognized as hate-motivated.

"These people who have been maimed and killed are not abstract. They are all our children. This is an issue that affects all of us. . . Difference can no longer make openness and honesty dangerous."

"Love of our children" also moved Carolyn Wagner of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and Families United Against Hate, to speak out. Wagner’s life was plunged into a nightmare by a phone call the night of Dec. 2, 1996. The caller, one of her 16-year-old son’s friends, said, "They’re killing him!"When she and her husband arrived, their son William was dying.

She recalled William’s last words: "They can only kill me once."

Murphy advised on new charge

By Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

Although District Attorney Joe Olt has not yet seen any of the police reports regarding a possible robbery in connection with Fred Martinez Jr.’s murder, he is pushing ahead with the additional charge of first-degree felony murder pursuant to a robbery against the alleged perpetrator, Shaun Murphy.

The 18-year-old Farmington man accused of slaying the Cortez teen was formally advised Monday morning on the new charge filed Friday, in addition to the existing charge of second-degree murder filed July 9.

"I don’t understand why the charge is being filed," Murphy’s attorney, Pamela Brown, said, referring to the absence of discovery documents.

Olt explained to the court that he was basing the new charge on oral reports from police as a part of the ongoing investigation, and said that both his office and the public defender’s office would have copies of the written reports Monday afternoon.

Martinez’s decomposing body was found June 21 near the sewer ponds on the south end of Cortez and an autopsy report revealed he had suffered from blunt trauma to the head as well as exposure. The Navajo teen, who was openly gay or transgendered, had been missing since June 16.

Murphy was arrested July 4 in connection with the murder, based on tips that he had bragged about beating up a homosexual.

A preliminary court hearing on the second-degree murder charge was scheduled for Monday but was continued until Sept. 7 in order to include the first-degree murder count.

Olt would not comment on what had allegedly been stolen from Martinez but told the Journal he felt there was enough evidence to pursue the new charge.

Also filed Friday was a motion by the defense requesting that the DA’s office be removed from the case because of newly revealed information that Olt had represented Murphy in a municipal case three years ago. County Court Judge Christopher Leroi denied the motion, however, citing a lack of evidence that Olt was biased or prejudiced because of his prior interaction with Murphy.

Brown said she could not comment on specifics of the case because of a gag order, but did say there was a possibility she would appeal the ruling pertaining to Olt prosecuting the case.

Following the hearing, Olt visited with Martinez’s mother, Pauline Mitchell, whom he has reportedly had little contact with since the murder. Mitchell has openly expressed her frustration with the DA’s office for not communicating with her about her son’s homicide investigation and denying her of her rights as a victim. She said she was never notified of Murphy’s first advisement hearing and was only given five minutes’ notice of Monday’s proceedings.

But Olt assured her that any neglect on behalf of his office was not intentional nor motivated by her son’s sexual orientation or ethnicity.

"If you’re thinking that — don’t," he told the grieving mother.

Mitchell told the Journal she was skeptical about Olt’s gesture to patch up the oversights.

"I’ve got to see it first before I can say I feel any better about it," she said.

Monday’s hearing was the first time Mitchell had ever set eyes on her son’s alleged killer. Murphy, who was seated in the jury box during the hearing, turned away when Martinez’s mother entered the courtroom.

That horrible night prompted Wagner to devote her life to stopping hatred, and is part of what brought her to Cortez. She asked that the community "remember the children. Their lives and futures depend on us to make a better world. We can take the first step forward here in Cortez."

Gabi Clayton, whose bisexual son, Bill, was driven to suicide after a savage attack, also cited the advantages of community support. "Because of that (support) I’m here; because of the love of a community like this." She now "reaches out to help others who have lost a child, especially to hate," she said.

"Fred’s death will keep me going until we don’t need to do this any more. If I don’t let the pain and grief of Fred’s death in, I die inside," Clayton said.

Other speakers and attendees reflected these sentiments. "Hate is not a family value," read one woman’s T-shirt.

Glenda Tom of Fort Lewis College’s XYZ Club "was scared and angry" at learning of Martinez’s death. "I just didn’t understand why anybody feels they have the right to take another life because it goes against what they have been taught."

Bill Bolden, housing director at Fort Lewis College, said he saw the matter as one of personal freedom cherished by every American. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," he said, quoting from the Preamble to the United States Constitution, "that all ...are created equal..."

Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are what need to be considered, he said. "This should be important to everyone here. . . to our own right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The sort of violence that ended Martinez’s life is a daily reality for Dede de Percin of the Colorado Anti-Violence Project. "I deal with this every day, but I still find Fred’s death frustrating and tragic. His death is a harsh reminder that not enough is being changed. . . Prisons, jails and laws should be a last resort, not a first step," de Percin said.

Others shared memories of Martinez as a typical teen, and loving family member.

"I saw him grow up," family friend Suzanne Casey said. "He seemed very happy; he was very kind, and had a lot of friends. It’s going to be very different" without his presence and laughter, she said. "I just pray some change happens, especially here in this community, so people don’t have to be afraid of being different in any way."

Jervis Mitchell spoke through tears while remembering his little brother.

"I felt a lot of anger that I couldn’t be there," he said. But Martinez visited him in a dream, he added.

"I grabbed him in a hug, and I asked him, ‘We’ve been worried about you. Where have you been?’ He looked at me and said, ‘I’m all right. I’m OK.’ I still miss him, and I will always think of him," Mitchell said.

"He was always ready to bring a laugh or a smile to my heart when I needed it the most," Pauline Mitchell said. "He was my baby. He was a free spirit and I loved him for his spirit and all of who he was."

But her son faced many difficulties, she added. Not only was he "Navajo living in a world that does not honor and respect different ways, he was nadleeh — two-spirit — and poor."

Sage Remington, who in 1992 founded the Two-Spirit Society, agreed. "It’s difficult enough to be an Indian; it’s even more difficult to be an Indian and to be gay," he said. "Indifference to such brutality only assures that it will happen again," he added, reading from a prepared statement.

"It is not easy to grow up as Navajo, two-spirit and poor," Mitchell said of her son, "but these are facts of life. He was not ashamed of who he was and neither was I."

Forgiveness and healing were also the focus of the vigil.

"Forgiveness takes strength," Tom said, "but we can never forget. From Freddie’s death, and all the other deaths, are a cry for help. We need to forgive Shaun (Murphy, Martinez’s alleged killer), because this was a cry for help."

The consensus at the memorial was clear: A life was cut short, a community was robbed of the contributions of a young man, and that young man himself was robbed of the opportunity to experience life.

Martinez’s mother put it simply: "F.C. left this world much too soon because of those who hate and fear anyone who is different."