Posted by
Mike on Thursday, July 07, 2011 1:28:50 PM
http://www.westernperspective.blogspot.com/
With all of the media hype surrounding the Casey Anthony trial, one
case that has not been in the national spotlight is that of Brandon
McInerney accused of murdering his classmate Larry King in an Oxnard
middle school classroom in 2008. The McInerneys are a well known family
in Oxnard, being descended from a Vietnam War hero of Irish descent and
a woman of Native American descent, Brandon's paternal grandparents.
The case is now being heard in a courtroom in Chatsworth, California
having been transferred out of Ventura County.
Essentially, Larry grew up in an abusive home and was placed in Casa
Pacifica, a home for abused children in Camarillo. At some point, he
decided that although he was born a boy, he would become a girl. Sexual
identity confusion such as what Larry experienced occurs because of a
brain malfunction due to a crossing of neurological wires making the
child or young adult believe that he is something that objectively he is
not.
Oxnard has long standing standards of conduct and attire for school
students. However, the school officials, principals and teachers were
apparently intimidated by a new California hate crimes law which made it
a felony to discriminate in the classroom on the basis of gender,
interpreted broadly to include gender self-identity. This meant that
although cross-dressing and wearing of makeup by boys could potentially
be disruptive, it was allowed to continue during the 2007-2008 school
year.
Although some of the facts may be in dispute, it is clear that in early
2008, Larry began wearing high-heeled boots, makeup and jewelery along
with his school uniform. It has also been suggested that King began
"hitting on" (i.e. making sexual advances toward) Brandon McInerney who
was at that time a star student athlete with exceptional academic skills
in mathematics. On February 12, 2008, after a verbal clash with King
the day before, McInerney brought a loaded pistol to school and fatally
shot King twice in the head during a science lab class.
The question before the jury is whether the killing was premeditated
murder, or whether King, through his own conduct, so provoked McInerney
into a state of anger causing him to do something that no reasonable
person would have done in cold blood under the circumstances.