Baltimore Gay Teen Murdered

Jason Mattison Jr., 15, was found raped, gagged and stabbed to death in a closet at his aunt's house last week.

Dante Parrish, 35, has been charged with first-degree murder, The Baltimore Sun reports. Parrish was sentenced to 30 years in connection with a 1999 killing but was released after the nonprofit legal group the Innocence Project "found that Parrish had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder based on a faulty statement of facts read into the court record," according to the Sun. A judge overturned Parrish's conviction.

The article describes the late Mattison as a popular, self-assured, and gregarious high school sophomore. "He was outspoken and excited about everything he talked about," Mattison's English teacher Ryan C. Jones told the paper. "He was very, very popular, and he was everyone's best friend."