Jurors hear more about night teen was killed
MICHELLE LOCKE
Associated Press
HAYWARD, Calif. - A man who was at the house where transgender teen Eddie "Gwen" Araujo was killed, testified Thursday he tried to push her out the door to safety in the chaos that followed the discovery that she was biologically male.
But Emmanuel Merel said he was blocked by two other men, Michael Magidson and Jaron Nabors.
"I'm not necessarily sure how they stopped both of us at that time. I know that their force was what stopped us from getting her out the door," he said.
Prosecutors say Araujo was beaten, kicked, choked and strangled after the acquaintances who knew her as "Lida" discovered she was biologically male. Merel and Magidson had sexual encounters with Araujo, according to earlier testimony, and the denouement came in an angry confrontation the night of Oct. 3, 2002.