National Geographic

A little common sense out of the Michigan Court of Appeals (PDF):

This case arises from the beating of Ryan Young. In the early morning hours of June 11, 2009, Young was celebrating his birthday with friends at a local bar. Defendant was also at the bar. Young did not know defendant, but defendant joined Young and his friends at their table and defendant and Young talked and became acquainted. At about 3:30 a.m., Young and defendant were dropped off at Young's apartment. Young testified that he went into his bedroom to change and asked defendant: "did you want to do anything or did you just want to go to bed," to which defendant responded: "yeah, I'm going to do something you fucking faggot."

Young testified that defendant choked him "so bad" that he "could not get away from him" and Young thought he was going to die because defendant "wouldn't get off me and just stop punching me." Young believed that he was fighting for his life. Young remembered defendant cutting off his oxygen until he passed out and that, when he came to, defendant was "just still bashing my face in" until he went unconscious again. Young believed defendant hit him "a good 30 times." According to Young, he never tried to touch defendant and neither of them ever fell asleep-except when Young went unconscious from the assault. Young testified that there was no discussion about flipping the television on or anything and that he believed this was because defendant had the assault already planned.

Read the full court ruling at the above link.

(Via - Pam Spaulding)

Ronald Jones, 55, beat and strangled his friend Robert Jenkins to death on Saturday as the pair drank in Jenkins' Staten Island home. Yesterday Jones (left) told investigators that he killed Jenkins in a "rage" after an unwanted sexual advance.

Some of the victim's enraged relatives were so overcome by emotion after spotting the suspect in court, they had to be held back. "That was my father!" Thomas Jenkins, 38, said angrily. The suspect didn't respond. And he didn't make eye contact with the victim's 30 or so relatives gathered in court. When the judge denied Jones bail, mourners broke out in applause. Robert Jenkins, 68, a retired mechanic and grandfather of 11, was found dead early Saturday in his West Brighton home. He had been drinking cognac with Jones for hours. Jones was visiting from Maryland.

Staten Island Live reports that victim's son arrived at the home to find the killer passed out with his arm around his father's corpse. Jones has pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree murder, despite having confessed.

Nineteen year old Michael Anderson (left) has confessed to the murder of Stephen Starr, 35, in Hickory, North Carolina, telling a police dispatcher that it was an overdose of Mucinex combined with Starr's unwanted advances that caused him to shoot and hack Starr to death.

Starr was found in bed in what law enforcement has described as one of the most gruesome crime scenes they’ve seen in years. Anderson was charged with Starr’s murder Monday afternoon and has his first court appearance Wednesday morning. Anderson called 911 while next to Starr’s body in the master bedroom, with a gun still in his hands, according to the 911 call. Anderson was holding the pistol, Fish said. In the call, Anderson says he took some pills that “made me go mad.” He tells the woman at the communications center that he shot his roommate three times and then used an ax and mutilated his body. “I Od’d on Mucinex DM. Dextromethorphan makes me feel a little weird and I took too many,” Anderson said.

About 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the call, the telecommunicator asks what sparked the attack. Anderson said it was because he was straight, and Starr was gay. According to him, the two met at a gay club. Anderson said he was straight, but went to the club to experiment. “I met him and went to his house and he took me in and I turned straight again. And he wanted to touch me and stuff and I wouldn’t let him, and he kept trying. And I waited until he went to sleep and then I shot him three times. And I mutilated him very badly and I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Oh God, please help me.”

The comments on the above-linked newspaper article are predictably filled with citations of Leviticus and kindly Christian admonitions that the deceased had it coming. Here's Anderson's 911 call to report having committed the murder.