By Keciah Bailey
In closing arguments on Thursday accused hate crime murderer, Elliot Morales, pleaded with jurors in tears: “I’m am not a bigot. I don’t hate anyone. That is not who I am!”
Morales, acting as his own lawyer, is charged with murder in the second degree as a hate crime for the 2013 shooting death of Mark Carson, a gay man.
“They never even questioned my sexual orientation,” Morales told jurors, arguing that he should not be charged with a hate crime since he himself was bisexual.
The trial took a surprising turn on Tuesday when a transgender woman, testifying behind a curtain and assuming the name “Jane Smith”, revealed that for more than a decade she and Morales were involved in a sexual relationship that began on an online dating site.
Morales also argued self-defense by claiming that during the confrontation with Mark Carson and his friend Danny Robinson, he thought he saw Carson start to draw a shiny black gun and so he feared for his life.
“I was the one confronted by these two individuals and on two separate occasions each were very hostile, threatening, adamant about beating me up and following me around the corner for no other reason than to antagonize and provoke me,” Morales said. He also claimed he was intoxicated from “vodka, Four Lokos and beers”.
Several times Morales broke down in front of jurors and had to pause.
But prosecutor Shannon Lucey said it was “nothing more than a performance.”
“That is not the real Elliot Morales,” Lucey said as she replayed video evidence showing Morales confessing to the crime as he was being arrested. The video showed Morales admitting, “I f-ing shot him! Diagnosis dead doctor!” as he mockingly laughs and hurls expletives at the officers who were restraining him.
“Before today you didn’t hear that he was sorry,” Lucey told jurors. “He bragged about his crime saying, ‘I shot him because he was acting tough in front of his b-tch!’ That is irrational hate.”
The prosecution argued that a “self loathing” Morales shot Carson because he wanted no one to know what he was secretly and that the sight of an openly gay man bothered him. Before shooting Carson, Lucy said, according to witness testimony, Morales yelled anti gay slurs and brandished his gun at a worker at the restaurant “Annisa” that same night, demostrating he is hateful towards gays.
Juror deliberations were scheduled for Tuesday. Morales faces 30 years to life, if convicted of the top charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime. He is also charged with criminal possession of a firearm and two counts of menacing towards police officers and the Annisa employee.
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