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Russell Henderson, 21, Sentenced to Two Life Terms

Pleads Guilty to his Role in Matthew Shepard's Murder
Avoids Death Penalty�But Cannot Seek Parole

By Jack Nichols

Aaron McKinney, left, says Russell Henderson, right, killed Matthew Shepard, but McKinney admited his role in the killing to avoid the death sentence.

Laramie, Wyoming� Blaming his cohort, Aaron McKinney, for having struck the fatal blows, Russell Henderson, 21, has been sentenced to two life terms for his role in the murder of Matthew Shepard.

Henderson accepted the conditions of a plea bargain first mentioned last week, in which his own life would be spared by the state. He admitted that it was he who had tied Shepard to a rural fence where the gay youth after being savagely beaten, was left exposed in freezing weather to die. He also pleaded guilty to felony kidnapping.

Judy Shepard, Matthew's mother, who wept on the witness stand, told Henderson: "I hope you never experience another day or night without experiencing the terror, humiliation, the hopeless and helplessness that my son felt that night.''

Henderson claimed he relives the horror of the night of Matthew's murder on a daily basis and that he felt truly sorry for what he'd done. He hoped, he said, that others would someday find it possible to forgive him. He also said he'd attempted to stop McKinney as his erstwhile friend beat Shepard without mercy, but that McKinney, in a fit of fury, had struck him too.

Judge Jeffrey Donnell, however, was disinclined to accept as sincere the associate-killer's apology. He told Henderson: "The pain you have caused here, Mr. Henderson, will never go away. Never.''

The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, and who gained international notoriety for his "God Hates Fags" crusade at Matthew Shepard's funeral, again showed up, this time in front of the courthouse. His purposes, he said, were to picket the "fag-infested University of Wyoming" and the "fag lobby gathered at the Laramie Courthouse."

The clergyman's strategy was considerably foiled, however when approximately a dozen young people dressed as angels showed up in advance, surrounding the "God Hates Fags" brigade and blocking with their wings public views of the hate group.

Signs carried by Rev. Phelps and his Baptist collaborators, read: Fag Matt, Fag Matt in Hell, No Tears for Queers, God Hates Fags, UW Fags, and Fags Burn in Hell. Calling his entourage a "religious protest" Rev. Phelps told the media he was "against the sodomite propaganda mill using the Matt Shepard tragedy to agitate for new pro-gay laws and to recruit America's youth to the sinful, shameful and illegal homosexual lifestyle."

Rev. Phelps called Matthew "a suicidal psychopath on drugs & alcohol with a death wish, dying of AIDS, promiscuously trolling for filthy, anonymous gay sex in a bar at midnight." He said: "Matt Shepard has been tormented in Hell 135 days, with eternity left to go. Deal with it! All else is irrelevant triviality. 'The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all peoples who forget God.' Psalms. 9:17. God's wrath is real. "

Prosecutor Cal Rerucha expressed hope that Henderson would remain in Wyoming's state prison until his death and that he would leave the prison's premises only to be buried.

McKinney, scheduled for an August trial on charges of aggravated robbery, first degree murder and kidnapping could be sentenced to death. It is not yet known whether Henderson's plea bargain included an agreement by him to testify against McKinney, repeating those details of the grisly killing about which he testified yesterday.

Henderson's lawyer argued that Henderson was not guilty of a hate crime, and that Matthew had not been targeted because he was gay. This argument, however, had earlier been contested by the prosecution which claimed that anti-gay hate had, in fact, been the murderers' principal motivation.

Russell Henderson will never live again outside of prison walls unless he receives an unlikely official pardon.