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Oct 20, 2001
by Aspen C. Emmett Shaun Murphy, accused of slaying an openly gay Cortez teen, pleaded innocent to charges of first-degree murder pursuant to a robbery and second-degree murder in district court Thursday morning. A trial date was set for March 4; the trial is expected to last up to two weeks. The Feb. 20 trial date, set following a preliminary hearing in September by County Court Judge Christopher Leroi, was vacated due to the fact Murphy had not yet entered a plea. Murphy, 18, of Farmington, is accused of brutally beating 16-year-old Fred Martinez Jr., who was a gay or transgendered Navajo teen. Martinez’s badly decomposed body was found June 21 south of Cortez in an area called the Pits. Several tips to a Crimestoppers hotline resulted in Murphy’s July 4 arrest. During the preliminary hearing, Murphy’s defense attorney, Pamela Brown, told the court that her client did not deny fighting with Martinez and striking him in the head with a rock the night of June 16. However, she contended Murphy was only fighting back in self-defense and that Martinez was alive when the two parted. Although there has been extensive speculation that Murphy might have been motivated by bias because of Martinez’s sexuality, very little has been mentioned during court proceedings thus far. During the 4 1/2-hour preliminary hearing in September, the lead detective on the case, Steve Harmon, and attorney general’s investigator Kelly Elliassen relayed the details of several witness interviews. Most of the hearsay testimony focussed on two key witnesses who were in Murphy’s company the night of the alleged murder — Melissa Scharnhorst of Cortez and Clint Sanchez of Farmington. According to an arrest affidavit, Sanchez disposed of Murphy’s bloodied clothes and Scharnhorst washed the blood-soaked jeans allegedly worn in the attack. Neither has been charged in relation to the murder, although Sanchez is currently in jail for a parole violation. While neither witness appeared in the courtroom at the preliminary hearing, Harmon told the court of Sanchez’s claims that Murphy returned from the alleged fight covered in blood, breathing heavily and claiming to have "bug-smashed a ‘hoto’ " — a term Sanchez reportedly told authorities is a derogatory Spanish slang term for a homosexual. In a later interview, Sanchez told police Murphy had claimed to have beaten up two people and robbed them both of $20. Scharnhorst has reportedly made similar claims in interviews with police. Harmon told the court that Murphy’s story had changed in different interviews: First he was attacked from behind by two males; then there was only one guy who "jumped" him; finally, Murphy told authorities he and Martinez had gone to the Pits to smoke a joint, was attacked by Martinez, and struck him with a rock only to defend himself. Brown also advised the court Thursday that potential witnesses at the trial pose a conflict of interest for the public defender’s office and will likely require that a new attorney be assigned to Murphy’s case. An omnibus hearing to address the possibility of reassigning the case was set for Dec. 5 at 3 p.m. before District Court judge Sharon Hansen. Although there has not yet been a motion for change of venue, there is still a strong likelihood that the defense will seek to move the trial to another location because of the high-profile status the murder has taken in the Cortez community. "That’s an entirely separate issue," Brown told the Journal Thursday. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
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