Ryan Skipper
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Ryan Keith Skipper (April 28, 1981 - March 14, 2007) was a 25-year old gay man from Polk County, Florida who was murdered on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 in what authorities declared a hate crime. Skipper's body was discovered on March 15 along a roadside in Wahneta, Florida. Two men were arrested in connection with the crime: William David Brown Jr., and Joseph Bearden, 20 and 21 years old at the time of the incident, respectively. The men were charged with first-degree murder and robbery.[1].
Bearden was convicted of second degree murder in addition to four additional counts on Friday February 27, 2009.[2] He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder charge, two 15 year terms and two five year terms, all to be served concurrently, on the remaining four charges.
Brown claimed he killed Skipper in retaliation for unwanted sexual advances [3]. He is scheduled to be tried later this year.
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[edit] Timeline of the Crime
At 9 p.m. on March 14, after finishing work in Winter Haven, Skipper met friend Karl von Hahmann for dinner. They left the restaurant at 10:30 pm. Skipper returned home where Von Hahmann spoke to him on the telephone at 11:10 pm, after which roommate Kelly Evans saw him go into his bedroom [4].
Some time around midnight, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Skipper met Bearden. Bearden is a convicted car thief who also pleaded no contest to a battery charge in 2004 [5]. Sometime afterwards, Skipper, Brown and Bearden drove away in Skipper's car; 15 minutes later Brown and Bearden returned alone.
It is not fully known how Skipper met Bearden and Brown, but Skipper's roommate Joyce Fraley claims to have seen Brown at their house on several occasions [6]. Strickland also says that Brown knew a previous tenant of Skipper's home, and lived two blocks away. Allegedly, Brown had visited the home a few times just weeks before he and Bearden murdered Skipper [7].
Skipper was beaten, stabbed 20 times and his throat slit. His body was dumped by the side of a road in Wahneta, a small town outside Winter Haven. His car was abandoned at Lake Pansy, and the fingerprints of both accused were found inside [8].
The first trial in the case, that of Joseph Eli Bearden, began February 16, 2009 [9].
On February 28, 2009, after nearly two days of deliberation, jurors found Joseph Bearden guilty of second-degree murder in Ryan Skipper's death. Prosecutors had charged him with first-degree murder and sought the death penalty. Bearden was also found guilty on four other counts: theft of a motor vehicle, accessory after the fact, tampering with evidence, and dealing in stolen property. Bearden was sentenced to life behind bars for the second-degree murder charge, as well as two five-year and two fifteen-year sentences for the other charges, to run concurrently with the life sentence.
Bearden’s co-defendant, William Brown Jr., will be tried separately later in 2009. [10]
[edit] Reactions
The murder has caused outrage among gay rights groups, who see similarities between Skipper's murder and that of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was murdered in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. They have also decried the lack of mainstream attention to Skipper's murder, which has been attributed by some to claims by Sheriff Grady Judd that, according to Bearden and Brown, Skipper was cruising for sex when he met his attackers, that he had consumed illegal drugs with Bearden, and that Skipper and his attackers were allegedly planning a check forgery scheme using Skipper's laptop computer. Skipper's family and friends all have agreed that this scenario is highly unlikely, as it was uncharacteristic of Skipper to approach men randomly, and he did not own a laptop computer. According to Brian Winfield, spokesman for Equality Florida, "They've characterized Ryan as a pervert, a drug addict and a felon. In the eyes of the media, it didn't carry the human interest that it should have" [11].
The Sheriff's Department has since admitted that the account of the events leading up to the murder that was originally given to the media by Sheriff Grady Judd was based solely on the unsubstantiated statements given by Bearden and Brown upon their arrests. Chief W.J. Martin acknowledged in an article in The Ledger that the two were probably attempting to "minimize their involvement and make themselves look better." [12].
[edit] Documentary
Filmmakers Vicki Nantz and Mary Meeks produced and filmed a documentary about Skipper's murder. The 72-minute film, entitled "Accessory to Murder: Our Culture's Complicity in the Death of Ryan Skipper", premiered in January of 2008 [13]. It was selected by the Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival as part of their Film Outreach Program[14].
[edit] References
- St. Petersburg Times: Gay slaying victim to be remembered
- The Ledger: Sheriff Calls His Stabbing Death a Hate Crime
- The Ledger: Testimony Begins in Gay Man's Stabbing Death
- The Ledger: Bearden Sentenced to Life in Prison
