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By Dana Friedman
Falls City, Nebraska
John Lotter, the second of two men accused in the murders of FTM transsexual Brandon Teena and two others, was found guilty on Friday, June 2 and now faces the death penalty for the triple murders.
The brutal New Yearís Eve 1993 murders have become a cause celebre in the transgender community because of police involvement in ìouttingíí Brandon Teena as a TS though he had lived quietly as a male in that area for sometime.
The other killer, Marvin Thomas Nissen, 22, also of Falls City, has already been convicted of one count of first degree murder in the death of Brandon Teena, Lisa Lambert, whom Brandon was living with at the time, and Phillip DeVine, a friend who was visiting them on the night of the murders. Nissen faces was also convicted on one count of first degree burglary.
Nissen testified against Lotter in exchange for a guarantee of no death penalty. Instead, he faces a maximum sentence of 3 life terms. Lotter, who will be sentenced in late July faces be death by electrocution.
A key piece of evident in the case was a knife used in the murders that Lotter dropped into a Nebraska river. The river was thoroughly searched, partially drained, and the knife (with Lotter's name on it) was found. The trial lasted less than three weeks.
Brandon Teena, whose birth name was Teena Brandon, was originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, and moved to nearby Humboldt in 1993, shortly after beginning to live full-time as a man in preparation for eventual sex-change surgery.
Brandon passed easily as a man in Humboldt, but was discovered to be biologically and legally female by local police following his arrest on a misdemeanor check forgery charge two weeks prior to his slaying. Police publicly released this information to the local newspaper, the Falls City Journal.
One week later, on Christmas Day 1993, Brandon was raped and assaulted at a Christmas party by two men, whom he identified to local police as Nissen and Lotter, despite the fact that they had threatened to kill him if he reported the incident to the police.
However, charges of rape and assault were not filed against Nissen and Lotter until after Brandon's slaying, despite the fact that his sister Tammy Brandon had called Richardson County sheriff Charles B. Laux four days before the slaying to ask why Lotter and Nissen had not been arrested when Brandon had identified them as his attackers.
According to Tammy Brandon, Sheriff Laux had responded to her inquiry by telling her that "he didn't need [her] to be doing his work." Laux, who has also been quoted as stating of Brandon that "you can call it 'it' as far as I'm concerned" has claimed that he had been "pursuing" the rape charges at the time of Brandon's death. Yet during preliminary hearings last fall, Sheriff's deputies testified that they were convinced that Lotter and Nissen had committed the rape and sexual assault, but had been directed by Sheriff Laux not to arrest them. Laux was defeated in his bid for re-election as Sheriff last November.
Local authorities have denied that their outing of Brandon in any way contributed to his killers' motives, and have declined to classify the murder as a hate crime. However, Lotter's sister has confirmed that both Lotter and Nissen were enraged after learning that Brandon was anatomically female but had been living as a man and was even dating a local woman (Lana Tisdale).
Witnesses for the prosecution at Thomas Nissen's trial testified that both Nissen and Lotter were enraged at and resentful of Brandon after learning that he was anatomically female but living as a man. Testimony during that trial also revealed that the Sheriff's office had interviewed dozens of people and prepared an extensive report on Brandon's rape and sexual assault during the week between the rape and the murder.
Lotterís entencing is take place on July 24th.