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Prosecutor expects no more arrests in Newark transgender killing

Daily Planet Wire Service
Thursday October 24, 2002

NEWARK — An Alameda County prosecutor said Wednesday that he doesn't anticipate any more arrests in the slaying earlier this month of a 17-year-old Newark boy who sometimes passed as a girl. 

Deputy District Attorney Ted Landswick said investigators have also located and interviewed a man named Jason who attended a party on Oct. 3 where Edward “Eddie” Araujo was allegedly killed. 

“We went and talked to Jason and we think he's a witness, not a suspect,” Landswick said. 

On Tuesday, police had said they were interested in speaking with Jason.  

On Friday, Michael William Magidson, 22, of Fremont, and Jose Antonio Merel, 22, and Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, both of Newark, were charged with one count each of murder, along with a special hate-crime enhancement. 

They are being held without bail. 

The men are scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Fremont today but Landswick said it is unlikely that any of them will enter a plea. 

He said that the defendants are not expected to enter pleas until January at the earliest, when defense attorneys have had a chance to review the evidence, police reports and other documentation in the case. 

A preliminary examination – a hearing held to determine if a person charged with a felony should be tried for the crime charged – would probably not take place until the spring of 2003, Landswick said. 

Law enforcement agents unearthed Araujo's body from a shallow grave in the El Dorado County wilderness east of Placerville on Oct. 16. 

According to police, Araujo was reported missing by his mother, Sylvia Guerrero, on Oct. 5 when he failed to return from a late-night party held two days prior at the home of brothers Jose and Paul Richard Merel Jr. at 37147 St. Matthew Drive. 

Guerrero told police that her son was a “cross-dresser” and sometimes went by the names Gwen, Wendy and Lida. 

At some point during the Oct. 3 party, the conversation turned to whether “Lida” was a male or a female, according to an affidavit police used to obtain a search warrant. 

The alleged beating apparently began when the group learned Araujo's true gender, court records show. 

“After the male subject was beaten, his semi-conscious body was taken into the garage of the residence,” the affidavit states. “The suspects tied a rope around the male's throat until they believed he was deceased.” 

Nabors told police that Araujo's body was then wrapped in a blanket and driven in the back of a pickup truck to the Silver Forks campground in the Sierra foothills where it was buried, according to court records. 

One week ago, Nabors led detectives to the corpse.