In April 2009, Allen Ray Andrade, 31, of Colorado was convicted of First Degree murder with no chance of parole after being convicted of the murder of Justin "Angie" Zapata. The court also deemed the murder as a "hate crime" based on the facts of the case. Other charges were added to the case and he was found guilty of those things as well.
Allen R. Andrade Andrade was arrested in the Denver suburb of Thornton, where he lives. Police responding to a noise complaint found him in Zapata's 2003 PT Cruiser, which had been missing. After more investigating Andrade told authorities that he met a young woman named Angie Zapata (in the picture posted on the left) on a social website called mocospace.com. He said that he and Zapata had exchanged several messages and shared photos of each other.
Mocospace is a social community that is comparable to "myspace" for cell phone users. It has individual pages and the ability to post picture, create backgrounds, chat with other members and leave comments on a friend's page. It's ability to bring together people through the use of a cell phone is not completely unique.
There are other sites that have been created for the same purpose. However, mocospace is increasing it's reaches into other areas to draw a larger group of interested users. Using the the cell phone for the web is easy to do if your cell phone plan has a data plan added. Once you create your account you can be just about anyone that you want to be and some people find that to be completely acceptable.
The chance meeting of Angie Zapata and Allen Andrade came to a gruesome end on July 17, 2008. Andrade told authorities that he and Angie agreed to get together after exchanging contact over several days, according to an arrest affidavit released by Greeley police. The two met July 15 and spent the day together.
Andrade told investigators that Zapata performed oral sex on him but wouldn't let him touch her, according to the affidavit.
He said he also spent the night at Zapata's apartment, but in separate beds. The next day, Zapata left Andrade alone in her apartment, and Andrade noticed several photographs that led him to question Zapata's gender.
Andrade confronted Zapata when she got back. Zapata answered: "I am all woman." He grabbed Zapata's crotch area, felt male genitalia and became angry, the affidavit states. He took a fire extinguisher off a shelf and struck Zapata twice in the head, telling investigators he thought he "killed it." "It" was not dead however, Andrade told investigators. Andrade said he covered Zapata with a blanket and started gathering evidence he thought might link him to the crime when he heard gurgling sounds and noticed Zapata was sitting up. That's when he picked up the fire extinguisher and hit her again, police said. He left the scene in her sister's PT cruiser.
Justin's body was bloodied and battered. A gruesome sight according to investigators.
He admitted that he felt deceived and tricked. He said his reaction was unplanned and out of rage. He disagreed that it was a hate crime although he continued to refer to Justin as an "it". The public defender in his case said that Andrade was tricked. The defender went on to say that Andrade had not solicited a man and that he truely thought he was meeting a woman. When he found out differently he snapped.
"Angie, she was a fun-loving young woman who was taken from us far too early," said Crystal Middlestadt, director of training and education for the Colorado Anti-Violence Program. Middlestadt is working with Zapata's family.
The Colorado Anti-Violence Program condemned the crime as possibly motivated by an anti-transgender bias. Zapata's sister, Monica, was quoted in a press release from the Colorado Anti-Violence Program as saying,
"We want to let everyone be aware that all she wanted was to be beautiful. We want this violence to end. Transgender people deserve to be treated with respect."
“Justin Zapata lived like a female, looked like a female, sounded like a female,” said one defense lawyer, Annette Kundelius. “That’s what Mr. Andrade believed. And when he found it wasn’t Angie, it was actually Justin, he lost control.”
