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Heated Testimony & Altercation During Trial Of Teen Charged In Killing Of Gay Classmate
Photo by bloomsberries via Flickr
An altercation between the family of slain gay student Larry King and the family of a teacher giving testimony, took place this week during the murder trial of accused classmate Brandon McInerney, according to the LA Times. Dawn Boldrin, a former English teacher "broke down in tears as she described how she had given a strapless formal gown" to 15-year-old King who had been attending class at his Oxnard school "in women's spike-heeled boots and makeup."
As Boldrin testified, the defense displayed a large photograph of King, taken by Boldrin, holding up the lime-green chiffon gown and smiling broadly. McInerney's mother, Kendra McInerney, and Boldrin's 13-year-old daughter, sitting in the courtroom, also began sobbing. [...]But the most emotional testimony came as Boldrin...ventured into a previously taboo topic when she blurted out that King "had been beaten" before he was taken from his parents' home and placed in foster care.
The defense argues that King was pushed to a "breaking point" after being sexually harassed by McInerney. The prosecution contents that McInerney was a "budding white supremacist" and that the killing was partly motivated "by a hatred of homosexuals."
King was shot twice in the back of the head in a school computer lab in 2008. If convicted, 17-year-old McInerney, being tried as an adult, faces 53 years to life. Boldrin, who did not believe her actions with the dress were inappropriate, lost her tenured teaching position and currently works as a Starbucks barista.
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