Scotty Joe Weaver: Gay teen's murder possible hate crime
In Bay Minette, Alabama, an 18-year-old man who was robbed, beaten, cut and strangled at his trailer home and then set on fire along a dirt road may have been targeted because he was gay, a Baldwin County investigator said. Captain Huey "Hoss" Mack Jr. told the Mobile Register that Baldwin County sheriff's investigators still believe robbery was the primary motive in Scotty Joe Weaver's killing. Two of Weaver's roommates -- Christopher Ryan Gaines, 20, and Nichole Kelsay, 18 - were charged with capital murder in Weaver's death. Gaines' friend, Robert Holly Lofton Porter, 18, was also charged with capital murder. The three are being held in a Baldwin County jail without bond. Mack said all three suspects were out of work, and Weaver was paying the bills at their home. Ledger-Enquirer
Update: The nature of the wounds that killed Weaver suggest that he was targeted in part because he was known to be sexually interested in men, Baldwin County District Attorney David Whetstone said Tuesday. Whetstone said the number and location of the wounds support that theory. "This is an obvious case of either an overkill or abuse of a corpse," Whetstone said, declining to elaborate. "That indicates more than a mere robbery." Yet Weaver's mother, Martha Weaver, says, "This wasn't a hate crime. Everybody knew how Scotty was." She said her son had been friends with Kelsay since first grade and met Gaines a few years later. "They accepted him all these years," said his aunt, Elizabeth Smith. "It's ridiculous to think for one day, they did not accept him." AL.com
Scotty Joe Weaver
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