An Atlanta teenager was convicted of murder after a Fulton County jury rejected his gay panic defense.
19-year-old Marquavyian Gude (inset) told the court he expected to meet a girl for random sex, but Devontavius McClain, also 19, showed up instead.
Police say Gude shot McClain in the head and stuffed his body into the trunk of his car. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. said Gude killed McClain for “making a pass” at him.
Police suspect Gude engaged in a consensual sex act with McClain, but Gude denied having sex with the teen.
“Gude could not explain why, instead of leaving, he chose to ride around with the victim for several hours before killing him,” Howard told a reporter.
According to the NY Post, phone records and forensic evidence found in the abandoned car linked Gude to the murder. Gude also used McClain’s stolen debit card.
McClain’s sister said Griffin police did not do enough to find her brother when he went missing from the family’s Griffin home in 2013.
Griffin police initially classified McClain as a runaway.
“I didn’t give up hope,” McClain’s mother told CBS46 after her son’s body was found in the car trunk in 2013. “But I knew that something was wrong with my son after he did not come home because he never did this before.”
McClain’s body was so badly decomposed that his tattoos were used to make the identification.
“She told me that she picked up my name, his sister’s name, but half of my name was gone,” McClain’s mother said in tears.
The gay panic defense, also known as the homosexual panic defense, has been used successfully in the past by defendants who claim temporary insanity in response to a perceived threat to their manhood.
The gay panic defense has been ruled inadmissible in multiple jurisdictions. But Georgia courts allow the gay panic defense to be used in murder trials.
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