In 2002, trans teenager Gwen Araujo went to a house party in the East Bay city of Newark. There, she was beaten, tortured, and strangled after a group of young men — two of whom she reportedly had sex with — discovered that she was biologically male.
Defendants Michael Magidson and Jose Merel claimed a "gay panic" defense but were convicted of second-degree murder in a retrial in the summer of 2005. (The first trial, in 2004, ended in a mistrial when jurors were unable to arrive at a unanimous decision regarding first-degree murder.) Defendant Jason Cazares negotiated a plea deal with prosecutors at the end of his second mistrial and pleaded no contest to manslaughter in late 2005.