Gwen Amber Rose Araujo (February 24, 1985 – October 4, 2002) was an American teenager who was murdered in Newark, California, at the age of 17. She was murdered by four men, two of whom she had been sexually intimate with, who beat and strangled her after discovering that she was transgender. Two of the defendants were convicted of second-degree murder, but not the requested hate-crime enhancements to the charges. The other two defendants pleaded guilty or no-contest to voluntary manslaughter. In at least one of the trials, a "trans panic defense"—an extension of the gay panic defense—was employed. Under California law at the time of the murder, the sexual intimacy by Magidson and Merel, both 22 years of age, with Gwen Araujo was statutory rape.
Merel and Magidson were sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Merel was granted early parole in 2016, after reportedly showing extensive remorse to Araujo's mother, who supported the decision. Magidson, however, has reportedly never shown remorse and has been denied parole three times since his sentencing.
Victim Gwen Araujo was born on February 24, 1985, in Brawley, California, to Edward Araujo and Sylvia Guerrero. Her parents divorced when she was 10 months old.
Araujo came out as transgender in 1999 at the age of 14, and began using the name Gwen after her favorite musician, Gwen Stefani, but also went by Wendy and Lida. She began to grow her hair long and planned to undergo hormone treatment and surgery. Her older sister said that she was bullied in junior high school because of her voice and bearing. She transferred to an alternative high school, but did not return for the 2002–03 academic year.
Background Araujo first met Michael Magidson, José Merel, Jaron Nabors, and Jason Cazares in late August or early September 2002. The night they met Araujo, she flirted with all four men and they smoked marijuana together. After she left, Nabors asked the other three, "Could this be a dude?", but none of the four men took the thought seriously. Later, she engaged in oral sex with Magidson and anal sex with Merel. She claimed to be menstruating and, during sex, would push her partners' hands away from her genitalia to prevent them from discovering that she had a penis.
Nicole Brown, who was dating Paul Merel (José's older brother) and was acquainted with Araujo, said that she and Araujo had engaged in a physical fight after Brown challenged Araujo to strip for the men. Araujo surprised her with a strong blow during the fight, and Brown said the men "were tripping, because she was smaller than me and just as strong. She fought like a guy." The four men debated in late September whether Araujo was female, concluding that "something bad could happen" to her if she was not.
Confrontation On the night of October 3, 2002, Araujo attended a party at a house rented by José and Paul Merel, attended by them, their younger brother Emmanuel Merel, Michael Magidson, Jaron Nabors, Jason Cazares, and Nicole Brown. Nabors later testified that José Merel said that night, "I swear, if it's a f— man, I'm gonna kill him. If it's a man, she ain't gonna leave." According to Nabors, Magidson added "I don't know what I'm going to do", and Nabors replied, "Whatever you do, make sure you don't make a mess." Brown said the four men were out at a club together and did not return to the house until after midnight.
In the early morning hours of October 4, Magidson asked Araujo to reveal her sex or allow him to touch her genitals, which she refused. Brown suggested that one of them should inspect Araujo, and Magidson took Araujo to the bathroom. After half an hour, during which José Merel later confessed he had sex with Araujo, Brown went to the bathroom, where she discovered Araujo had male genitalia during a forced inspection. Brown was surprised and blurted out, "It's a f— man!", and the men with whom she had had sexual relations became enraged and violent. Brown testified that she warned Araujo that the men were "very angry", but upon exiting through the front door, Araujo was confronted and forced back inside the house by Magidson, Nabors, and Cazares. Emmanuel Merel testified that he also tried to escort Araujo away from the house, but was prevented by Magidson and Nabors.
José Merel vomited upon learning Araujo had male genitalia, then began to cry in disbelief, saying "I can't be f— gay." Brown testified that she tried to comfort Merel after the discovery, saying "It's not your fault. I went to high school with you, and you were on the football team. Any woman that knows you after this, it's not going to matter. Just let her go."
After Araujo was brought back into the house, Magidson grabbed at her skirt and underwear in an attempt to expose her genitals. He then proceeded to punch her in the face, knocking her to the ground, and put her in a chokehold, but he was pulled off by others. Araujo begged the men to stop, saying "No, please don't. I have a family." José Merel became angry and struck her in the head with a can of food, denting the can and opening a cut on her head, and then he struck her again with a frying pan. The last words Merel heard Araujo speak were "I told you I was sorry."
At some point after that, Brown woke Paul Merel, and they left the house with Emmanuel Merel. Emmanuel Merel later testified he walked to a convenience store to buy gum, then went to a friend's house to spend the night.
Nabors and Cazares left in Magidson's truck to retrieve shovels and a pickaxe from Cazares's house, saying as they left the Merel house that the other men were going to "kill that b—". Brown recalled that after she had left with Paul Merel, they drove around the block and returned to the house to see Nabors and Cazares leaving in Magidson's truck.
Murder When Nabors and Cazares returned, Araujo was still conscious, bleeding from her head wound and sitting on the couch. José Merel became concerned that Araujo was bleeding on the couch and ordered her off it. At some point, the assault resumed. Nabors and Cazares urged the others to "knock the b— out", according to Nabors's testimony. Magidson hit her head against the living room wall with his knee, rendering her unconscious. Nabors testified that Magidson's assault was so severe it left a dent in the wall and cracked the plaster. Cazares kicked her. Merel was concerned with cleaning Araujo's blood off the couch and carpet before retreating to his room so the others would not see him crying.
After Araujo was knocked unconscious, Magidson bound her wrists and ankles, then she was wrapped in a comforter to minimize the amount of blood staining the carpet, before being carried to the garage of the home. After this, the defendants' testimonies diverged.
Nabors testified that Magidson strangled her with a rope and that Cazares struck her with a shovel, but Nabors was returning from the garage and did not actually witness the act of strangulation. Referring to Araujo as Lida—the name she had used with them—Nabors testified that he saw Magidson raising the rope to her neck before he left the garage and that Magidson later told the others "that he had wrapped the rope around Lida's neck and twisted it."
Magidson testified that it was instead Nabors who strangled her and struck her with the shovel, and Cazares testified that he never struck her and did not see her die. José Merel testified he was cleaning Araujo's blood out of the carpets and couch as Magidson was binding her ankles, prior to her being taken to the garage. Merel also said he thought she was still alive until he saw her body in the bed of Magidson's truck. It is not clear at what point during this sequence of events she died. However, the autopsy showed that she died from strangulation associated with blunt force trauma to the head. According to Nabors, Magidson "wasn't sure if Lida had died from twisting the rope, but once Jason hit her twice with the shovel, he knew she was dead".
She was then placed in the bed of a pick-up truck, and the four men drove her body four hours away, burying her near the Sierra Nevada mountains in a shallow grave in the El Dorado National Forest near Silver Fork Road in El Dorado County. On their way home, they purchased breakfast at a McDonald's drive-through window. Later that morning, during a phone conversation, Brown asked José Merel what happened, to which he replied "Let's just say she had a long walk home."
Arrests The partygoers did not report the crime and the assailants said nothing to anyone about the murder. Araujo usually checked in with her mother, so when she did not come home the day after the party, her mother called the police on October 5 to report her missing. Police did not initially take the missing persons case seriously, partly because she was transgender, and also because she was known to stay away from home overnight. Rumors reached her family that a girl who had been outed as transgender at a party had been killed and buried in Tahoe, and her aunt called the police on October 9 to pass on the story. Police began to interview the partygoers, and one of them led the police to the Merels' house.
Two days after Araujo was reported missing, a friend of Jaron Nabors described him as appearing distraught. Nabors had confessed to a friend what the four had done shortly after returning from the grave site. That friend tipped off the police and agreed to wear a microphone during a subsequent conversation with Nabors about the murder. Confronted with the recording, Nabors agreed to lead authorities to the body on October 15.
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office dispatched four crime scene investigators and two detectives to recover Araujo's body from the grave site. The four who were initially arrested and accused of the murder were Magidson (age 22); Nabors (19), José Merel (22), and Paul Merel (22).
Paul Merel was released after Brown and Emmanuel Merel told the police that he had left the scene with them. Magidson, Nabors, and José Merel were charged with murder on October 17 and held without bail. On October 24, Nabors pleaded not guilty, Magidson was still looking for an attorney, and José Merel was still reviewing the evidence against him. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Merel was confident that charges would be dropped.
After he was arrested, Nabors wrote a letter to a girlfriend in which he stated the defendants had discussed a "Soprano-type plan" to "kill the b— and get rid of her body". The letter was intercepted by sheriff's officials and led to the arrest of Cazares on November 19. Cazares had been identified as a potential witness on October 22. At the first trial, defense attorney Tony Serra accused Nabors of writing the letter knowing it would be intercepted and implicate Cazares.
Trials
Jaron Nabors Nabors pleaded guilty on February 24, 2003, to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, which carried an 11-year prison sentence, along with a promise to testify against the other three defendants.Gwen Araujo Memorial Transgender Education Fund. "Relationship Risks! " During the formal entry of his plea, Judge Kenneth Burr warned Nabors that he could still be charged with murder if prosecutors found he was not "living up to your end of the bargain".
During the February 2003 indictment proceedings, Nabors gave a detailed account of the murder and burial. As they were burying her, the men continued to disparage her. Nabors testified that he stated he "couldn't believe that someone would ever do that, would be that deceitful" and that José Merel added "he was so mad he could still kick her a couple more times".
Nabors received an 11-year sentence on August 25, 2006. With credit for time served, he was expected to spend approximately five years in jail from that point on.
Magidson, Merel, and Cazares First trial