Two young men, Russell Arthur Henderson, 21, and Aaron James McKinney, 22, were charged with
kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and first degree murder and held on $100,000 bond. University of Wyoming student, Chastity Vera Pasley, 20 and Kristen Leann Price, 18, were charged as accessories to the crime. Authorities allege Price and Pasley supplied false alibis for their boyfriends after the two men were arrested. Price was released on $30,000 bond and
Pasley is still in jail in lieu of the same amount of money. The murder count carries a possible death sentence.
Police Commander Dave O'Malley said the two men made anti-gay remarks to them, and said the two women helped the male suspects dump their bloody clothes.
Charges against the men's girlfriends, Chastity Vera Pasley and Kristen Leann Price, were upgraded to accessory after the fact of first-degree murder. They were accused of helping their boyfriends get rid of bloody clothing.
Details emerged about a second alleged attack by the suspects the night Shepard was lured from a campus hangout, robbed and beaten. Two Hispanic teenagers, who say they are not gay (but anyway Hispanics, another target of hate), reported that Henderson and McKinney ambushed them early last Wednesday, cutting the scalp of one before the other retaliated. Police Sgt. Jeff Bury confirmed that Henderson and McKinney were involved in an altercation with the two.
Henderson and McKinney, who face felony kidnapping, assault and first-degree murder charges, showed little emotion during the court hearing.
Pasley sobbed throughout the hearing, dabbing at her face with a tissue. Despite earlier reports that all of the suspects were University of Wyoming students, university officials said Pasley, a second-year freshman art major, is the only university student among the four.
McKinney's girlfriend, Ms. Price, and his father, Bill McKinney, told The Denver Post that the two men never set out to kill the 5-foot-2, 105-pound Shepard. Instead, they said the two wanted to get back at Shepard for making passes at McKinney in front of his friends Tuesday night in a campus bar. To make a pass (even if it is true) deserves so an inhuman, beastly answer? |
