Details on plea bargain in Sakia Gunn murder prosecution

According to this morning's Newark Star-Ledger, Richard Mc Cullough, who admitted guilt in the killing Sakia Gunn, 15,may get a sentence of less than 20 years as a result of a plea agreement. In addition, outstanding legal issues may lead to the further reduction of the sentence on appeal.

Mc Cullough, 30, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault and bias intimidation in Essex County Superior Court. Mc Cullough took the stand and acknowledged wielding a knife with a slashing motion when he stabbed Sakia Gunn.

The prosecutor's agreement to drop murder charges against Mc Cullough greatly reduces his likely sentence. Earlier news reports stated that under the original charges, Mc Cullough's maximum sentence could have been more than 100 years.

In a failed legal maneuver last November, Mc Cullough's lawyer tried to challenge the constitutionality of the Hate Crimes statute that formed the basis of the bias crime charge. The Star-Ledger story speculated that this issue may form the basis of an appeal.

According to the Star-Ledger article, Mc Cullough initially said that Gunn ran into his knife during a confrontation that begin when he and another man made sexual advances to Gunn and four friends as they waited for a bus after a night of partying at the Chelsea piers. The girls rebuffed the men, saying they were lesbians.

But Mc Cullough changed his story when Judge Paul Vichness threatened to void the plea agreement and order a trial.

Laquetta Nelson, a Newark activist who co-founded the Newark Pride Alliance in the wake of Sakia's murder, told me last night that Mc Cullough continually referred to Gunn as a "little dude." Both Nelson and the Ledger article said that he also admitted calling the girls "fags" and "dykes."

At the time of the murder, Gunn's fondness for baggy sweatsuits, do-rags and boyish hiphop gear led Genderpac executive director Riki Wilchins to note, “With six murders in two years, it is becoming clear that minority teens who cross gender lines are increasingly at risk.” The organizations has logged several more cases since that time.

Gunn was a 10th-grader and aspiring hoops star at Westside High School when she died on May 11, 2003. Her death prompted demonstrations, vigils and rallies in Newark, Boston, Los Angeles and elsewhere. More than 2500 people, most of them young and black attended her funeral amid demands for greater protection for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth.

The protests led Newark Mayor Sharpe James to pledge support for the establishment of a community center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth. That effort was also endorsed by Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) and former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. Little progress has been made on the development of the center, but the Mayor's office has said that a proposal is still under development.

Nearly two years after the murder, the most visible changes are probably in the Newark public schools.

Immediately after the murder, young activists said the Westside High School principal Fernand Williams refused their request for moment of silence in school to memorialize Gunn. That led to protests and an online petition drive by Michigan State University student LaJoya Johnson.

On the first anniversary of the murder, the Newark Schools Superintendent Marion Bolden ordered a moment of silence in all of the city's schools for Sakia and other students who had died violently during the previous year. Then-Gov. James Mc Greevey declared May 11 as "No Name Calling Day" throughout the state. She was also commemorated in a on the corner where she died.

In addition, Newark chapters of national organizations that support gay youth were established. The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has done workshops with staff in the Newark schools, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) established a scholarship in her honor. MSU student LaJoya Johnson also initiated a scholarship in Gunn's memory at her school.