McInerney Defense: King Harassed, Targeted McInerney

Brandon McInerney's lawyer worked today to downplay the prosecution's assertion that his is a "gay panic" defense, making a closing argument in the murder trial that claims victim Larry King's character isn't being assassinated. Rather, King's behavior illustrates the environment McInerney endured, according to attorney Scott Wippert.

"We're here for a search for the truth," Wippert said in the Chatsworth, Calif., courtroom, taking frequent sips of water. "It isn't a manipulation of the truth." Of senior deputy district attorney Maeve Fox's claim that Wippert was stirring up a cultural bias against gays in his defense, Wippert said to the jury, "I'm offended. I hope you are -- gay panic, a cultural bias that we all have within us that homosexuals are deviant predators? Do you feel that way?"

Although Wippert said he wasn't presenting King as a bad child, he did argue that King was "troubled" and "sexually harassed" and "targeted" McInerney. Wippert said the aggressive flirtation and overt sexuality of King, along with McInerney's troubled background, should lead to a conviction of manslaughter, not murder, for the 17-year-old who is being tried as an adult.

Early in his closing argument, Wippert went after Averi L., King's onetime best friend who earlier testified that the victim was routinely bullied by students at Oxnard, Calif.'s E.O. Green Middle School. Averi L. admitted she sometimes egged on King's extroverted behavior, knowing he would be teased.

"Some friend," Wippert said, as the 16-year-old fled the courtroom.
Wippert tried to take Fox to task on her assertions that McInerney was a white supremacist, obsessed with Nazis, who harbors a hatred of gays that led to the shooting. Sketches of Nazi symbols that were found in McInerney's bedroom were described by Wippert as "doodles." Associating with white supremacists doesn't make McInerney a white supremacist, Wippert argued while noting the teenager was friends with Latinos and African-Americans.

"He shot Larry King, it doesn't mean he's a Nazi," Fox said. "It doesn't mean he's a murderer ... that's why there's manslaughter."

(RELATED: Prosecution Tears Apart McInerney's "Gay Panic" Defense)

Wippert worked to garner sympathy for McInerney with the jury and tried explaining the teenager's emotionless silence during much of the trial.

"Why doesn't he cry?" Wippert posed. "He was beaten severely and he never cried." And that's also why he didn't complain about King's purported sexual harassment, Wippert argued.

Descriptions of McInerney's abusive father, now deceased, and his drug-addicted mother were again brought up to the jury. The testimony of teachers was also a large part of Wippert's closing argument, which did not finish by the end of proceedings Thursday. The testimony of teacher Shirley Brown figured prominently. When King was her student, Brown told him to take off his makeup, and she had testified, "He looked like a clown, and if a girl came into my class like that, I would tell her to go to the bathroom and wash it off. I would talk to any student who was doing anything that was making themselves a target."

Averi L. spoke to The Advocate outside the courtroom after the end of Thursday's proceedings. She disputes Brown's testimony, saying homophobia was rampant among teachers and that many girls routinely wore more makeup and higher heels than King.

At one point before the shooting, vice principal Joy Epstein filed a complaint against Brown for making homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks -- the grievance was later dropped.

Another teacher, Jill Ekman, claimed in earlier testimony that male students complained to her that King was chasing them into the bathroom; she also said she heard that King gave McInerney a valentine. In cross-examination, Ekman admitted she never witnessed King chasing boys into bathrooms and that the valentine was simply a rumor. Still, both teachers testified they were worried for King's safety and said they complained about the gay teen's behavior to vice principal Epstein. Much of Wippert's case hinged on teachers pointing out alleged attention-seeking behavior by King and on Epstein's inaction in response. Fox in her closing argument said the teachers were trying to save face by pointing fingers at King and Epstein, while Wippert defended the teachers and came down on Epstein, who is gay.

"Joy Epstein is a lesbian herself -- talk about someone with an agenda," Wippert said today. "[King] was empowered by Joy Epstein."

Near the end of Thursday's proceedings, Wippert reminded jurors that an E.O. Green cafeteria worker testified that King sauntered and pranced in front of a group of male peers.