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Premeditation Seen in Killing of 35-Year-Old Gay Male Semaj Dion Beal to Receive a Mandatory Life Sentence |
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Compiled by GayToday
Lansing, Michigan--August 31--An Ingham County jury found a
20-year-old man guilty of first degree murder yesterday in the shooting death of a
Lansing gay man. Alden Michael Hill, 35, was found in his home last
February. He had been dead for at least four days.
Semaj Dion Beal was convicted of pre-meditated murder in the shooting death of Hill, who was targeted because he was gay. Gay activists and Assistant Prosecutor Frank Simone argued that Beal planned to kill and then rob Hill. Beal faces a mandatory life sentence without parole. Ingham County Circuit County Judge Carolyn Stell presided over the weeklong trial. "Today there is justice for the family of Al Hill, and for those disgusted when gays are singled-out for brutality and murder," said Sean Kosofsky, Director of Policy and Victim Services for the Triangle Foundation, a statewide civil rights, advocacy and anti-violence organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Michigan.
"The motive for this crime was robbery, but the victim was chosen because he was gay and expressed a sexual interest in Beal," continued Kosofsky. "No one will ever know the truth about the relationship these men had with each other, because Beal exploited Alden Hill's affection for sadistic and violent motives. Semaj Beal targeted a gay man whom he knew to be romantically interested in him, for a brutal murder and robbery." |
